Final Destination New Life
by PhoenixAngel444
Summary: A Final Destination story that has a new twist in cheating death. I know there are a few spelling and grammar errors and some things in the story don't work. I haven't gotten around to editing.
1. Chapter 1

Ryan walked quietly, alone, as the sky quickly darkened while Ryan made his way to a local fast food restaurant. For some reason unknown to him, he wasn't looking forward to going to the restaurant, but he had to since the restaurant was the closest one to where his community service took place. It wasn't as if he hated the food, it wasn't even the fact that he knew the girl who worked there wouldn't be happy with him. It was just a strong sense of undeniable dread that he had no reason to feel. Ryan was normally a carefree person, who didn't care much about anything so it confused him to feel so strongly about going into a place he had been so many times before.

On another note, he wasn't looking forward to the encounter he was about to have with the girl who worked there. He didn't want to cause her any trouble at her work. He was actually quite attracted to her, but she had seemed very bored of him the last time he had called her. He stopped calling her after making a promise to visit her one-day at her work and then not going through with that promise. He was sure the pretty girl hated him. He thought to him, How could I have been so stupid as to mess up my only chance with the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on?

The rain started to slowly drizzle as Ryan continued to make his dreaded path towards the local Best Burger. He could see the mascot smiling at him. The mascot looked eerie in the light and sent chills up Ryan's spine, it looked as if it didn't have eyes, just empty sockets. He was close now. He could see a figure through the window, cleaning the tables in a work uniform, Janie, he thought. He could also see multiple customers, they looked strange through the windows because from where Ryan was standing he could only see half of their bodies and it looked as though they had been chopped in half. Ryan was scaring himself.

Ryan walked past the parking lot as it started to rain harder. Raindrops danced on the windows of Best Burger. The rain bounced off of Ryan's brown hair, soaking his hair, rain dripped down his face, passing his thick brown eyebrows and falling into his deep brown eyes. He frowned, making his face look more mature than it already did. He was a contrast to his looks, he looked mature, but handsome, although he was one of the most immature people Janie had ever met.

He finally approached the door and opened it; a strange sense of unwanted dread flooded him as soon as his hand met the door handle. The feeling of dread had been with him since he left the site where his community service was being performed and decided to get something to eat. He knew there was no reason for him to fear something like a fast food restaurant, he'd been to hundreds of fast food places in his eighteen-year lifetime and nothing bad had happened to him as far as he could remember. He felt as if he had to force himself to go into a place he had been hundreds of times before.

Inside he could hear the sound of the rain beating on the windows. He saw Janie; she looked beautiful with the shadows from the rain soaked window dancing across her face. She had her long, multi-colored hair pulled up and she was wearing her uniform hat along with the rest of the uniform that she disliked so much. The uniform was too big for her and the pants dragged the floor, which caused them to have frayed bottoms. Ryan cringed at the sight of the torn bottoms of Janie's pants. It was just another thing to give him the creeps.

She was cleaning the tables that people had been to lazy to clean themselves, it was a job she hated but she had no other choice while attending college. She moved a strand of loose hair out of her haunting blue eyes, and behind her ear as she wiped a table with a cloth. Ryan felt that he couldn't remove his eyes from her face. She smiled slightly at a customer telling her about his day; Ryan doubted that she was giving the customer her full attention.

The uniforms that all the Best Burger employees wore matched the color scheme of the restaurant. Red and black shirts, black pants, and black hats. The uniform looked strange on Janie's petite body. It made her skin look paler than it should have. She looked up at him for a moment, maintaining eye contact for a brief moment. She looked uncomfortable and looked at the table she was cleaning. The table was stained with ketch up that reminded Ryan of great, another thing to make him feel uncomfortable.

He attempted to shake those feelings off as he took his place in line. He didn't have to wait very long before he was served. "May I take your order?" asked a young blonde female with a fake smile plastered on her face. "I'll just have a hamburger and a coke," he replied. While he stood there waiting for his burger to be prepared he noticed the sound of an Elvis song coming from the restaurant's sound system. He had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He decided it would be best if he distracted himself with something and allowed his eyes to wonder to the employees standing behind the counter, preparing his food.

The grease being used to cook the fries hissed like an angry animal when frozen fries were dropped into it. He saw smoke floating through the restaurant. He glanced over at a tan man who was about twenty with lots of bracelets and chains that Ryan was sure he wasn't allowed to wear. The tan man was putting burgers on some type of stove, filled with grease, as he placed one of the patties down a small drop of grease smashed up, making a small burn on his finger. Ryan cringed and looked away. The restaurant was filled with buzzes and clicks from all the devices used to cook one little burger and a small carton of fries to go with it. He focused his attention on an overweight boy and a skinny girl who seemed to be arguing about something. Ryan decided it was best if he didn't watch them prepare his food, watching them was making his uneasy feeling grow worse.

The cashier came over to him with his food and receipt. The top of the receipt said Best Burger, May this meal be as good as your last. The short statement made him shiver. He had a cold feeling on the back of his neck, as if an icy hand was touching him. A cold breeze blew around him but he didn't see if someone had opened the door. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He suddenly wanted to leave but forced himself to stay when he realized how foolish he was being. The cashier handed him a drink cup along with his meal. After fixing his drink and gathering all the things he needed he looked around for a table that Janie hadn't cleaned yet, in hopes of talking to her about his behavior.

He found a booth not far from where he was standing. As he approached the booth he noticed a small, neon orange scrap of paper lying on the table. He slid into the booth, and then grabbed the paper to examine it. He instantly wished that he wouldn't have even noticed the tiny scrap of paper he was now holding. On one side of it was the statement, Death Happens Everyday. On the other side there was a picture of the Grim Reaper. Ryan cringed as he read those words a second time. A slight pain in his finger caused him to drop the scrap of paper.

He had received a paper cut from the small, orange scrap of paper, now sitting on the floor, at his feet. The dark red blood from the cut started to drip towards the table. Out of habit he stuck the bleeding tip of his index finger into his mouth, just in time for Janie to glance in his direction and notice him sitting they're sucking on his finger. She looked down again and embarrassment flooded over Ryan. He wrapped his finger in a white napkin and watched the blood seep through.

A manager walked into the Best Burger, she was soaked and yelling profanity, unhappy to be at work on such a horrible day. She gave Ryan a single look of pure hatred that seemed to burn through him. He was already uncomfortable, but the look that the manager gave him somehow made him feel a thousand times worse. It seemed as though she thought Ryan shouldn't be there, and sitting there, his finger bleeding as he ate his unhealthy lunch with an uneasy sense of dread, he wished he were anywhere but there.  
It started raining even harder, Ryan could no longer see out of any of the four extremely large windows at Best Burger. Ryan frowned. He felt as though he were trapped in Best Burger. The song on the sound system changed, although he couldn't hear it over the rain, it was "La Bamba", if Ryan could have heard it his sense of heavy dread would have deepened. As he chewed his burger he wondered to himself if people on death row feel this way during their last meal.

A cold wind blew through the restaurant, causing the remaining napkins sitting on Ryan's table to be blown to the grown. He looked for an open door but he saw none. Everything seemed strangely calm to Ryan. Although he couldn't see out of the window he had a feeling that something bad was about to happen just outside of the restaurant. He sipped his drink, trying to appear calm.

He suddenly saw what happened next as though he was outside. He saw a delivery truck outside, with the same mascot he had seen when approaching the building. Just under the mascot was the sentence from his receipt, May this meal be as good as your last. The drive thru was filling with cars, a Mustang, an old white truck, and a Hurst. He wondered if there was a dead person in that Hurst. The he shivered. A strong sense of dread soon became his only emotion upon seeing the Hurst. He felt had a cold rush throughout his entire body, he felt drenched with fear. He was wide eyed and struggling to breathe, his chest was slamming up and down, rapidly.

The delivery truck served to avoid the Hurst, causing the delivery truck to crash into the back of Best Burger, where the supplies for the restaurant where stocked. A man Ryan had never seen before was climbing on shelves that must have weighed at least two hundred pounds, the shelves had wheels on the bottom to make them easier to move. The man reached up for a box on the top shelf as the trucked slammed into the shelves. The shelves rolled smashing the man who had been reaching for the box. The shelves where divided into three sections, causing his body to be ripped in three. Blood spattered on the boxes and shelves that surrounded the now dead body of a Best Burger employee. His hand still clutching the box he had been reaching for just moments before. The truck backed up a small bit, the shelves opened, the dead bodies three sections dropping to the floor with a disgusting sound.

Ryan felt he couldn't tear his eyes away, although he didn't want to look. The body was divided into three sections now, one was the head and shoulders, the next was his stomach, and the last began just above his waistline. The box had fallen on top of him. His bloody arm seemed to be reaching out for Ryan, his eyes seemed to be filled with one last question, why didn't you help me? Among the body was various organs and veins, blood stained the floor.

The truck driver was about to go head on with the Hurst. He was either going to have to back up again or he was going to injure the driver of the Hurst. He was completely unaware of what had just happened. He was unaware that a human body lay, split into three, with blood leaking out of it and overwhelming amounts. He had to destroy the store further or risk a murder charge. His boss was going to kill him.

Something around the shelves caused Ryan to tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight. The manager he had seen earlier, while he was eating his meal, came into the room with the shelves in it, after hearing the commotion. There were dozens of boxes on the top shelf above her head. As she started to move closer to determine what had happened, the truck suddenly plunged into the wall where it had previously made a hole. His truck connected with the shelves once more, they glided over the body that was split in three, dragging it a small bit. The boxes above the manager's head began to shake. "What the fuck? She screamed. The box fell directly on her head; it had so much force that it knocked her head straight off of her shoulders, decapitating her. Her head rolled into a corner where they kept the napkins. The body fell a minute later, as if she was still alive, peacefully kneeling down and then continuing to lie on the floor. There where blood speckles on the boxes of napkins.

Screams and panic came from the part of the building where they where cooking the food. They had no idea what was going on until they saw the head of their manager rolling on the floor near the napkins. Ryan suddenly felt as though he were back at his table, sitting with his food and watching the panic unfold. He heard sobbing and soon saw three of the crewmembers he had seen when he was in line running into the lobby. The skinny girl pulled out her cell phone. She started dialing the number for the police. The Hurst suddenly crashed into the window, shattering the glass. A single shard of glass that had been sent flying by the Hurst spun in the air towards the sobbing girl on her cell phone. She noticed a moment to late, she let out a scream of horror and disbelief as the glass sliced through her body. It sliced her into two halves, cutting into her just above her belly button. She dropped the cell phone, she had a look of terror in her eyes and she was still alive for a belief moment, Ryan watched as the life drained from her green eyes. The top half of her body toppled onto the floor, the bottom half fell in the opposite direction.  
The overweight boy that she had been arguing with earlier kneeled down and try to put the bloody pieces back together. He was sobbing and a thought crossed Ryan's mind. That was his girlfriend he just watched die. He stood up and pushed his hair away from his tear soaked face with his blood-covered hands. The Hurst attempted to get out of the window; the delivery truck blocked it in. It moved forward a small bit, hitting the truck. The impact caused the coffin to fly through the back windshield of the Hurst.

The coffin was flying through the air at an almost unnatural speed, as though an unseen hand had thrown it. In horror, Ryan realized that the coffin was descending towards the overweight boy was leaning over his girlfriend's corpse, sobbing uncontrollably. The coffin smashed right into the boy's face, knocking him backwards against a wall. His head flattened against the wall, his name badge flew off of his shirt and onto Ryan's table, almost as if some unknown force wanted Ryan to know he was about to die. The boy's name had been Wes, and now all that was left of Wes was a blood soaked wall, and a semi decapitated body. The head was still attached, only it was flat and almost nothing more than blood, the brain and other organs had splattered out and now lay on the floor next to his lifeless body.

A small fire had broken out over the stove. A few members of the crew attempted to put the fire out, in a panic. They beat on the fire with towels, the fire spread instead of being extinguished. The crew members eyes widened in horror at what was happening. It seemed like they were doomed. Some began to pray, other ran and screamed, and a few called people on their cell phones. The fire was a very massive fire. The workers pushed the door in an attempt to escape the fire that was blazing across the kitchen area, only to discover that their way was blocked by two dead bodies.

The tan crewmember was still in the lobby with his two deceased co-workers. He was more freaked out then he would ever have liked to admit. Ryan could see from where he was sitting that the boy was shaking. A few customers ran out the door, causing him to move his attention from the two dead bodies sitting next to him to the people running out in a panic. He decided it would be best if he left. He attempted to leave but tripped over his untied shoelace. He was standing next to the toy display. He would have fallen to the ground, in the gory pile of what used to be his co-workers, if not for the necklace he called his lucky necklace.

The necklace had a single spike on it; it was a black chain with a spike at the end. It caught on the toy display. His lucky necklace held him up. As though an unseen force was moving it, the spike on the necklace turned to face the boy's neck. He was trying to regain his balance when the spike suddenly cut into his neck. He made a gurgling sound and blood came out of his mouth, he fell further, causing the necklace to dig deeper into his neck. His eyes were pleading for help as he reached out his hand. His feet slid on the floor. The spike slit his throat in a deep line across his neck. He blinked his eyes, his eyes looked pained. He was seconds from death. He choked, then his eyes went blank, he was no longer alive. His body was still hanging from the toy display, a gruesome, bloody sight. His eyes staring endlessly out, at something Ryan couldn't see. Ryan wasn't sure it was something he would have wanted to see if he could have.

Ryan looked up to see Janie's eyes were wide and full of fear. He could hear her praying loudly, he couldn't understand what she was saying. People were screaming and drowning out most of the other sounds, Ryan was unable to hear but the sound system switched to John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High". Flames had engulfed the entire back end of the restaurant. Janie started to run, desperately for the door, Ryan felt numb with fear. Just as Janie made her way to a door at the front of the restaurant, the Hurst moved once more, Ryan finally managed to stand up and started running as fast as his legs could carry him, towards Janie. The Hurst shook a final shard of glass free from the frame of the window. The shard of glass flew through Janie's neck, decapitating her; her head fell onto the floor and rolled near Ryan's feet.

Before Ryan could react to what had just unfolded before his eyes, the glass shard continued to move forward, but it twisted slightly upward. It entered the top of Ryan's head, separating his forehead from the rest of his head. The top of his head flew backwards, as though it were a Frisbee. Ryan felt the pain and his vision started to blur. It was as if he was crying, but he was unsure if he were doing much of anything. He couldn't concentrate on anything other then the pain, but somehow through the blur he managed to realize that he was no longer standing. His blurred vision began to darken. He wondered if he was dying and soon came to the conclusion that he must be taking his final breaths as he lay on the floor to the Best Burger he had dreaded walking into. He knew the fire was now over his body. He prayed for a brief second, apologizing to God for all the things he had done wrong and then it all faded to black.  
"May I take your order?" asked the fake smiling blonde cashier.

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	2. Chapter 2

Ryan was sweating, having trouble breathing; he had an insane look in his eyes that frightened the cashier. His eyes scanned behind her, the boy burned himself, the fries hissed, the couple argued. He rushed over to the table he thought he had been sitting at. He was greeted with the sight of the orange scarp of paper. The cashier looked confused and annoyed. "Sir, is everything alright?" she asked. He held up the scarp of paper, as if it would prove what he was about to say. He looked at her with an insane look in his eyes and a sweat drenched face.

"Everyone in Best Burger is going to die, I saw it," he screamed at her. Gasps and silence followed his remark, he had no time to wait, and he had to get everyone out of there before his vision became real. He ran to the counter that the cashier was standing behind, aware that every eye in the building was looking at him as if he were a criminal. The manager walked through the door at that very moment; she quickly walked up to the counter, got in Ryan's face and whispered, "What's the problem, sir?" She was attempted to get him to quite down, the attempt failed. A few crewmembers came to the counter and Janie approached where Ryan and the manager where standing.

He punched the counter again and yelled, "This fucking place is going down in flames and you still care about serving food? Get the fucking customers out of here or they'll die." "Is that a threat?" asked the overweight manager, clearly growing impatient with Ryan's outburst. The delivery truck drove up. Ryan felt adrenaline rush throughout his body, he screamed, "That's the truck that kills us, the truck that starts it all!" Every head turned to glance out of the over sized windows. "Sir, I'm going to have to remove you from the building," the manager said, gesturing to her crew. Janie and the other members of the crew that had came out grabbed Ryan.

Ryan was determined to fight the members of the crew until they released him. He started kicking and punching at them and a customer got up to help them. Janie started to lose her grip on Ryan. She quickly regained it. They dragged him out of the building and into the parking as he yelled at the customers, "You are all going to die if you don't get out!" The workers dragged him into the parking lot and when they were between a Mustang and a Ford Ranger they heard the sound of metal on brick as the truck collided with the building.

They all looked up and dropped their hold on Ryan. He feels to the ground, he felt unable to stand so he sat and watched the horror unfold before him. As he sat there, in the rain, his bottom on the hard, cold, and wet concrete, he had never felt so helpless in his life. His eyes were glued to what was happening before him. He saw the Hurst collide with the window, the glass shattered. Soon after, the building was engulfed in flames. Ryan's eyes widened. _I should have died in that building,_ Ryan thought as he sat on the ground, almost lifelessly. He wasn't aware of his chest moving rapidly up and down as he struggled to breathe.

Shattered glass flew forward, they all stood there in shocked silence, not wanting to believe what they had just seen. "Oh shit!" the manager said, breaking the silence. For the first time Ryan was able to tear his eyes away from the blazing building that he was just a few yards away from. He looked up to see all the people he had saved, all of them soaked with rain but not seeming to notice, the reflection of flames in all of their eyes. As he looked around he realized that all of the people standing there with him were people that he saw dying in his vision, people he knew should be dead. He realized something else, people died right in front of him and he couldn't do a thing about it.

"Is this really happening?" asked Janie. Ryan looked up at her, her mascara was dripping down her face, and her sliver eye shadow was barely noticeable anymore. She was still beautiful. She looked overwhelmingly innocent, almost angelic, with the raindrops rolling down her face. The tan boy moved closer to her and put an arm around her as she collapsed into tears. The boy was trying to fight back the tears that had welled up in his eyes. Everyone else was unable to take their eyes away from what used to be their workplace.

"Come on, we don't need to stand out here, let's go to the coffee shop and wait for the police to come," the tan boy said. He kept his arm wrapped around Janie as they all started to walk to the coffee house next door. Ryan finally picked himself up and started walking towards the coffee house himself, the tall, dark haired boy he'd seen get smashed by the shelves turned to look him in the eye. "Are there any survivors?" He asked. Ryan looked down, unable to even mutter a reply for a few minutes. "I don't know," he finally replied.

Ryan didn't actually plan on going into the coffee shop with the rest of them. He planned on sitting on the sidewalk outside and waiting for the police to come. He was well aware that the people he had just saved thought he was responsible for what had just happened. Still in the tan boy's arms, Janie turned around, "Did you cause this?" she asked in a quiet voice. Ryan's face went pale; he stood there silently for a few moments before the shock of what Janie had just said went away. "No, I didn't cause this. Why would I cause this, why would I want this to happen?"

She turned back around and didn't give a response. They reached the coffee shop and all went inside, except for Ryan, who sat outside, in the rain. As he sat there his eyes welled up with tears and he covered his face in his hands, sobbing. He kept repeating to himself, "I didn't cause this, I didn't cause this, I didn't cause this." "I believe you," he was shocked to hear a voice behind him, he turned to see that Janie had come out of the coffee house and was sitting next to him.

"Thank you," he said. She put an arm around him to comfort him. Both of them soon raised their eyes to see that the rain was extinguishing the fire. All that was left of Best Burger was a semi burning shell. Janie lowered her eyes, "You saved my life, thank you." She squeezed his shoulders. She stood up and went back into the coffee shop, leaving Ryan alone.

Ryan buried his hands in his face again and started sobbing. He was barely aware that of the sound of the police siren growing closer to him. He was unaware of the strange glow that washed over him as the police lights approached. He was completely unaware of the presence of the police officers until one of them leaned over to see his face and started speaking to him. "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to join the others in the coffee shop, we need to talk to you all together."

Ryan stood and finally looked at the two officers standing there. The one who had spoken to him was a blonde haired, green-eyed officer, the name on his badge said Mitchell. He looked very serious. The other officer had black hair and brown eyes; he didn't look as serious as his partner. His badge said Kirk. Mitchell didn't wait for Ryan to walk into the coffee shop by himself, he grabbed Ryan's skinny arm and shoved him, painfully, into the coffee shop.

He forced Ryan into a sit at a table near the doorway. He glared at Ryan for a moment before addressing the other people in the room. "Does anyone need an ambulance?" Mitchell asked, glancing around the room. Ryan also looked around the room. Janie, the tan boy and the customer were seated at one table, each wrapping a blanket around them and shivering. The overweight boy, the skinny girl, and the manger all sat together at another table and the remaining member of the group, the boy Ryan had seen die first, was standing near the counter. It was a moment before any of them spoke, waiting to see if anyone needed help, worried about each other. The boy standing by the counter broke the silence. "Maybe a therapist," he snorted, "We all got out before anything happened, thanks to that bastard over there." He pointed to Ryan.

Kirk and Mitchell turned to look at Ryan. There will be further questioning later, right now we just want to make sure all of you aren't in need of anything at this moment." Kirk said kindly. "We'd like to get an idea of what happened to make all of you decide to leave Best Burger minutes before it burst into flames," Mitchell said in a less then friendly voice. "We left because that asshole was having a nervous break down," the boy said, again pointing at Ryan. Kirk frowned, he knew this meant lots of paperwork for him and hated paperwork.

"I had a vision, I saw all these people dying, I saw him getting crushed by a shelf, I saw her getting her head knocked off by a falling box, I saw her getting sliced in half by a shard of glass, I saw him getting his head smashed by a coffin, I saw her getting her head cut off by a shard of glass, I saw the restaurant burst into flames, I saw myself die. I felt my last pain and took my last breath, I saw it all, and I felt it all. I don't care if you think I am some psycho, it's true and I saved your lives," Ryan finally spoke up for himself. Everyone appeared uncomfortable upon hearing how Ryan had seen all of them die, an awkward silence followed. "I don't owe you a fucking thing, asshole," the boy said, he approached Ryan, fists balled up. He desired a fight.

"I never said you owed me anything, I never said anyone in this room owed me anything. All you owe me is a little bit of understanding. Do you know how it feels to realize that you knew this was going to happen and you didn't save more people? Do you know how it feels to be accused of a crime you didn't commit? Do you know how it feels to have a room full of people staring at you with pure hatred in their eyes? You don't know how any of this feels, I saved all your lives and all I get is your hatred, shoved down my throat." Ryan said.

"I don't hate you, I'm grateful to be alive, thank you for giving me this second chance to be alive," Janie spoke up without looking up. Every head in the room turned in her direction to stare at her. She never did say much, she was painfully shy, but she knew speaking up would cause everyone to stare at her and maybe even hate her. She didn't care at this point. She was alive and she felt she owed something to the person who saved her life, the person who was being treated like a murderer.

"Janie, how can you defend him? How do you know he didn't put a bomb somewhere in Best Burger before we got out? How do you know he didn't want to murder us?" the boy spoke up again, his voice using a different tone to talk to Janie, a gentle tone. The tan boy and the customer both gave her a hug. "All of our friends that worked with us are dead, some of us may have lost family and you want to defend this freak, Janie, I know you know better than that. You should understand what his actions have caused." He spoke again. This tone his tone seemed a little different, as though he was angry that she didn't understand his point of view or she just refused to acknowledge it.

He walked up to her and held her face up to force her to look into his eyes. "Janie, I don't want to see any of us get hurt, from now on it's only the six of us, we're going to have to find a new place to work, we're alone now, so many have died and it's only us now." His voice was deeply saddened. "Sir, I would like you to please sit down, we have a few more things we'd like to ask you before we actually bring you down for official questioning." He did as he was told.

"I would like you all to state your names," Kirk said. "Adam Long," said the angry boy who had been asked to take a seat. "Katrina Williams," said the manager. "Amy Kain," said the skinny girl. "Wesley Blake," said the overweight boy as he tightly gripped his girlfriend's hand. "Riley Lewton," said the tan boy, who was now looking out the window at what was left of Best Burger, he frowned and held one of Janie's hands. "Janie Horton," Janie said, she stared at her black work shoes, biting on her bottom lip to keep herself from crying. "Jeremy Hitchcock," said the customer. "My name is Ryan Browning," said Ryan, aware that all eyes were on him.

"I'd like to see your driver's license, sir," Mitchell said. Ryan was aware they thought he was making up his last name. His cousin, Alex had a vision that saved the lives of his classmates and a teacher. He noticed that some of the people sitting in that room with him had the same last names and some of the Flight 180 survivors. Ryan held out his driver's license, which was suspended for drinking and driving charges. Mitchell frowned at it and gave it back to him.

An amused smirk crossed Mitchell's face, "I suppose now you're amusing that you're all going to die in the order you got out of the restaurant or something like that, right? Bullshit, Alex Browning had a lucky guess and then all his buddies died." Ryan was clearly unhappy with the comment that had just been made about his cousin. "My cousin wasn't crazy and neither am I," he said. "I'm sure you all are freezing cold, why don't you call your parents or your husbands and wives or whoever you live with and ask them to bring you a change of clothes and you can all change into something that's not soaking wet." Kirk said, feeling a surge of sympathy for the group.

Mitchell stole another glance at Ryan, the only member of the group not shivering from the cold of the rain soaked clothing. Ryan looked out of the window to see the frame of what used to be Best Burger about twenty minutes ago. He was well aware of the officer's eyes burning into him. He sighed, _this must be how Alex felt, like a prisoner, like a freak, not sure if he was insane or why this was happening to him. _Even though Ryan already knew they wouldn't believe him he decided to plead one last time, "I didn't cause this." Then he buried his head in his hands and prayed for this to over.

Ryan held his head up and glared straight towards Adam. "My vision was just like my cousin's, I saw every detail, as though I was there. I felt what it was like to live those last few minutes of your life. I felt what it was like to die. Adam, you better pray that I'm wrong about this, because if I'm right, you're next on death's list."


	3. Chapter 3

Ryan was still overcome with grief and depression although three months had pasted since the premonition. He wasn't friends with any of the victims, he had no idea why he felt the way he did. He hadn't even seen anyone who survived, other than Janie. He visited her about three times since the accident. That's what the fire was called, an accident, but in Ryan's mind it somehow didn't seem right to call it an accident, since he saw it coming. He often wondered why he was chosen to foresee what he had foreseen.

Janie and the other had been offered at job at the nearest Best Burger franchise. They had all taken the job, they all needed money. Ryan had promised to go see her one-day but she laughed into the phone when he said that. It was clear that she didn't believe him. He didn't blame her. After him lying to her about going to see her, it was a miracle that the girl still talked to him. Janie was dating the customer named Jeremy, the one that had survived. Ryan knew nothing about him other than his name.

Ryan lay on his bed, wishing the accident had happened. He sighed a deep sigh of depression. He was fortunate enough to live alone so he didn't have to worry about what other people thought of his depression. His friends had separated themselves from him a few days after the accident. They claimed they didn't like his depressed attitude, but Ryan knew otherwise, the thought of him being able to "see the future" disturbed them out so they distanced themselves from him. He wanted to believe that his friends had actually cared about him and that the only reason they didn't want anything to do with him was because he no longer cared to go to parties and get drunk with them. He didn't want to feel as alone as he felt at that very moment, lying on that bed.

All he had done everyday since the accident was go to work and then come home and lay on his bed, replaying his vision and all that he remembered happening that day. He remembered being dragged out of the restaurant, he remembered the building bursting into flames, he remembered sitting in the coffee shop, and he remembered being brought into the police station for questioning. Everyone that had been there had been brought in for questioning but Ryan imagined that they didn't go as hard on everyone has as they had on him. He was on probation for drinking and driving, so being questioned by the police caused a great deal of problems for Ryan. He frowned as he thought of all this, and then punched the very bed he was laying on, the same routine he had done everyday for three months.

A newspaper from the day after the accident was sitting on the floor, next to his bed. He looked at it everyday, wishing that he could change the words in the paper, wishing even more that the events in the paper had never happened. The front page had a picture of the shell that once was Best Burger, an article about what had happened. Ryan didn't read the article anymore, after a month he realized that no matter how many times he read those words it would still be the same, Best Burger was no more. Below the picture there was a line that read, EIGHT SURVIVORS BARELY ESCAPED. Below that were the head shots of each person who had cheated what Ryan assumed was their fates.

Ryan already knew what the pictures looked like but he examined them everyday, as if wishing they would change. He honestly wished that one day he would wake up and the newspaper wouldn't be there and his life would go back to normal. Everyday he looked at the survivors, as though looking for a hidden connection that only he could see. Ryan had began to get obsessed with the idea that they were all going to die, like the survivors of Flight 180, but each month that went by had gone by without a death and Ryan had dismissed his idea that they would soon die. It was not completely dismissed; Ryan just never spoke to anyone about it anymore.

Each survivor had their name under their picture. Each day Ryan stared at the names and pictures, trying to make a connection between the people and why he had the premonition. All the pictures appeared in the order that Ryan had seen them die. Ryan started to put the newspaper back but for a second his eyes lingered over Janie's photo, smiling up at him. Ryan briefly wondered what she would say if she knew how addicted he'd become to this, to death.

He tossed the paper down and put his hands behind his head in frustration. He decided that maybe if he took a shower he would feel better. He gathered his clothing as he shot one last glance at the paper. _If my vision was anything like my cousin's, I owe it to these people to save them. _His mind had been driven nearly insane. As he walked to the shower he felt something that he had felt that day, the very day he had the premonition. A cold wind was softly brushing every millimeter of his body.

He shot a glance around the room. All the windows and doors were shut, there was no way that there should be any wind in his depressing apartment. "Are you here, you little weasel?" he asked, wondering if death could hear him. He had an angry expression on his thin face. A box of Cd's that Ryan had never gotten the chance to unpack fell onto the floor, almost as if it were death's response to Ryan. "What the fuck are you up to, you bastard?" he asked it.

A wind blew once more, blowing the newspaper onto Ryan's leg. He grabbed the paper, looking at it once more. He frowned down at the paper in his bony hands. He examined it and realized that one of the survivors was about to die. "Is it me, you fucker?" he screamed. He realized that if he were meant to die first death would have already claimed him. He looked at the paper one more time, noticing that Adam Long was listed first, as if he were first on death's list. Ryan's eyes widened.

Ryan threw his clothing and the newspaper down and ran of his apartment, not even bothering to close or lock the door. He doubted that he'd be able to save Adam; he probably wouldn't even make it there on time, unless death waited for him. Unless death wanted to show Ryan what was coming to him. Ryan would have to run four miles to get there, if he could make it than it would be worth it if he could save Adam Long.

Ryan suddenly ran across the highway, nearly being hit by a car. He felt as if he was having a panic attack but he had to get there. He started wheezing. He chest was slamming up and down rapidly. The driver had stopped just an inch before him. She got out of her car; she was about to ask if he was all right. "I'm sorry," was all the out of breath Ryan could say, as he dashed off in the other direction. Tears formed in Ryan's eyes as he realized how close to death he just was.

_What if I can't beat this and we all die? I'll have to watch all these people die. I'll have to live out my vision. I honestly don't want to die and I don't want them to die. I just want everything to be the way it was before this all happened. I want them to be safe and to be honest I would trade my life for them._

Ryan had never felt so worthless in his life as he did at that very second, that instant, realizing that he might not be able to help anyone. He knew that everyone had to die sometime but he didn't want to see these people die. He wanted to pretend that all people only died of old age, in their sleep, and that they didn't feel any pain. He didn't want these people to die young and he felt a certain bond for them.

Cars swerved to avoid Ryan as he ran across the highway. He could see the Best Burger now. He didn't see any police cars and the building was still in one piece so he took that as a good sign. He said a prayer, as he got closer to the building. He could see the people in the building now, he didn't see Adam anywhere but they probably kept him in the back. Ryan hoped that he hadn't died and gone unnoticed.

Adam Long frowned at the sight that stood before him. He had always been a neat person but he assumed that didn't count for much at this Best Burger. Someone had moved the boxes he had just stocked up. They were no longer in there correct places. Adam wondered to himself if they had done this on purpose. He wouldn't doubt it. For the past three months he wondered if the people who worked at this Best Burger would have preferred that Adam and his co workers would died in that fire rather than work with them.

They treated Adam and his co-workers as if they were some kind of illness. They had showed no sympathy for these people who had barely escaped that fire. Adam wouldn't have even taken the job if he didn't need the money. He assumed that no one else would have either; they didn't seem to like the way they were treated.

Adam was a twenty four year old who had given up on the idea of going to college a long time ago. He didn't think he would ever have the money and the fact that he had a son now was the main factor in his not attending college. He loved his son, but he always figured that he would never be able to do enough for his son. He hoped his son didn't turn out like him. He prayed that his son would go to college and do better for himself. He stayed up at night sometimes, worrying about his son. He felt bad that he couldn't give his son everything that he wanted or needed. His son was the only reason he even dragged himself out of bed in the mornings.

He frowned and crossed his arms while looking at the boxes. He finally picked one up to and walked over to move it. At that moment he saw someone out of the corner of his eye, going into the walk in refrigerator. It was Janie; he dropped the box and approached her. "Hey, do you need any help?" he asked her. "Could you get a box down for me?" she asked him, knowing he would. They walked into the refrigerator together. The both shivered from the cold, but they both also seemed to be shivering from something else that they couldn't identify. "It's that one," she said, pointing to a case of chicken. He pulled it down and handed it to her, making sure she had a good grip on it.

She turned to leave, but Adam put a hand on her shoulder. "You still talk to that premonition boy?" he asked, watching his breath form clouds as he spoke. Janie turned back and looked at him, she wondered why he even asked that, he hadn't said a word about Ryan since the accident. "Sometimes," she said, looking down. "What do you think about what happened that day?" he asked her. "After it happened I went home and collapsed into tears on my bedroom floor, wondering why I had been allowed to live, even if only for a few more days, when these other people weren't allowed to take another breath. Not a day goes by that I don't think about it and wish it had never happened. It happened so now I guess we just have to get on with our lives." she looked him straight in the eye and then looked down again.

"Are you going to that memorial thing?" he asked her. "I'm not sure," she answered grimly, as if she had been asked if he were about to die and thought the worst would happen. She turned around again to face the door as she walked out of the refrigerator. Adam stayed in for a moment, staring at the shelves and cases that were all around him, as he thought about all that had happened in the past three months. He started to feel a numbing pain on every piece of his exposed skin, he shot a glance at the door that lead to the freezer on his way out.

Ryan's hand was now gripping the door handle to the Best Burger. He was gasping for air, his stomach felt tight with fear. He felt the same feeling of dread that he had the day that he had his premonition. He knew he had to fight that feeling or Adam's life would be lost. He wondered how many times he would have to fight that feeling before he finally died. He struggled to push those thoughts out of his mind but he knew no matter how many times he pushed them away they would come back.

As he pushed open the door, using most of his remaining effort. He stumbled into the restaurant, aware that all eyes had turned to him. He must have been a strange sight, sweating and out of breath. "Adam Long...Adam Long...is going to...is going to die," he managed to choke out. There were stunned gasps all throughout the restaurant. A manager walked up to Ryan, he'd never seen her before, she was a tall woman, she wasn't pretty but Ryan guessed from the way that she carried herself that she thought she was. She rudely grabbed his face in her hands, her manicure scratching his skin. The touch of her hands sent pain throughout Ryan's cheeks.

She brought his face up to hers so close that Ryan could smell her breath, he guess that she hadn't brushed her teeth that morning. "Listen, little boy, no one here is going to die. I already know about you and I don't want you in here disturbing my customers, so get the fuck out of my restaurant before I call the police." She released him and gave an evil smirk. Ryan had never wanted to hurt someone more than he wanted to hurt her at that very second.

He raised his eyes to the doorway she had come from. He made a mad dash for it. He was going to risk anything it took, if only to save one life. He ran through the door, hearing the manger call after him but not caring. The workers behind the counter looked very shocked to see him, as he ran past them, trying to avoid knocking them over. He was aware that the manager was probably not to far behind him as he ran past the grill and into the back corridor. He knew that he was just seconds away from Adam.

Adam nearly bumped right into Katrina on his way out of the refrigerator. She looked shocked, but said nothing other than, "I'm sorry," as she continued to make her way into the icy freezer. Adam didn't think twice about her before returning to the task at hand. He felt a cold breeze brush against him, his brown hair shifting in the wind. He looked around, before assuming that he must be a little jumpy. He was thinking of the memorial when he heard a disturbance somewhere up front.

He turned his head to look in the direction the disturbance had come from. He was shocked to see Ryan Browning running straight towards him. "Adam, Adam, you're going to die!" he screamed. Adam was now overcome with anger, raging inside him. Adam made a fist, and started to approach Ryan. Adam's foot caught inside the box that he had been moving before his trip to the refrigerator, causing him to fall backwards. His body hit one of the shelves with so much speed that the shelves bounced, causing Adam's body to be crushed between the shelves.

Adam felt the most pain he had ever felt in his entire life rush through his body. _I'm going to die,_ he realized as the images before him started to fade out. He felt overcome with grief that he would never see his son again. A single tear formed in his eyes and he did something he hadn't done in a long time, Adam prayed that his son would be all right without him. Adam didn't want to give up but he knew there was no hope for him, he knew as he saw what had become of his body that he wouldn't survive. He made eye contact with Ryan and gave him once last look of pure hate before allowing the world around him to fade to black.

Ryan and the manager behind him stopped in their tracks to attempting to take in the morbid vision that stood before them. Adam's body had been crushed in three places, causing his body to have become separated into three different sections. His head and shoulders, his stomach, and the other was everything below his stomach. The shelves then opened once again, as if death was being cruel, and allowed Adam's body to fall, limply, to the floor. Blood and organs spilling onto the floor. His eyes remained opened; they seemed to be looking up at Ryan, a look of pure hatred frozen on his dead face.

Blood was spattered everywhere, on the shelves, the cases of supplies, it covered Adam's entire body. Adam's hand seemed to be reaching out, towards Ryan and the stunned manager. Ryan couldn't manage to tear his eyes away from what had been a living, breathing human being just seconds before. A tear formed in Ryan's eye when he realized that he had not been able to stop death. Ryan's shirt felt wet, and he looked down to discover that Adam's blood had soaked through his shirt.

Ryan looked up at the corpse lying before him on the floor. Tears formed in Ryan's eyes as he realized this was only the beginning. Death was not yet done with them, it had only claimed the first life. Ryan let tears roll down his cheeks for the first time in ten years, just as a cold breeze swept over him, as if taunting him. "It's not over, it's just began," he said to Adam's dead body. The shinny metal color of the shelves sparkled in Ryan's eyes. It made Ryan thinks of a bloody knife. He frowned as he realized that the sparkle of the shelves was another sign. Tears rolled down his face as he looked at the lifeless body on the floor and realized, Katrina's next.


	4. Chapter 4

Janie opened the box that Adam had gotten her from the refrigerator and was greeted with a small white smoke cloud. It reminded Janie of the cold winter days when you could see your own breath. It also sent an odd chill down her spine. A cold wind that seemed to come from nowhere swirled around Janie, it gave her a strong sense of dread. She shivered and turned her head to look around her. She sensed that something was wrong, but looking around she couldn't figure out what it was.

She heard yelling from the back and quickly turned her head to see what was going on, but once again she saw nothing. She started to walk to the back of Best Burger, a worried look on her beautiful face. She headed determinedly through the corridor. A million different horrible ideas crossed her worried mind. All was silent, which bothered her more than the yelling. She quickened her pace, hoping that nothing bad had happened, while knowing something horrible had to have happened for all that screaming to have occurred.

She was not ready for the sight that was there for her to behold. She had just gotten Adam Long to get a box down from her and now he was lying on the floor, bloody and lifeless. It was unlike anything Janie had ever seen in her entire life. She had never seen a dead body before, and certainly not one as gruesome as Adam's was. Tears formed in her eyes as she realized that her friend had died seconds after talking to her. She saw Ryan standing by Adam's dead body, along with a manager who had her cell phone to her ear and was apparently waiting for a response on the other end. Janie walked closer until she was standing above Adam's dead body.

She kneeled down, not taking her eyes away from her dead friend. She placed a hand on his face; she wanted to be sure he was dead. It was completely unbelievable to her. Someone she had seen seconds before, had talked to, and was now a bloody mess of organs and human flesh on the floor at her feet. She sobbed loudly, not even noticing when Ryan approached her. He put a hand on her shoulder, "He's only the first of us, you know," he said, looking down at her. Her head turned sharply as she turned to look him in the eye, "What do you mean?" she asked him, he couldn't tell by her face what emotion she was feeling.

Ryan could barely look at her as he spoke. "It's just like what happened to my cousin. My cousin had a premonition, which caused six people, other then himself to get off of a plane, later the plane exploded. The survivors started dying a month after that. I think that's what's happening to us, one by one we're going to die." Ryan said, he looked over his shoulder; he hadn't even realized that Riley was standing behind him. Riley stepped closer to him, "Why would we die because of this?" he asked him, balling up his fists.

"I think they interfered with our lives in some way, our time to die may have been avoided because of them, I know my death was avoided because of Alex. I was into heavy drugs and I was near death, I overdosed and Alex drove me to the hospital, allowing them to save my life, I would have died that night, if not for him. I cheated death." Ryan looked him straight in the eye, Riley didn't look away, and instead he gave a statement of his own. "If what you're saying is true, Alex Browning and his friends were meant to be nothing more then names on a plaque, but they managed to cheat death for a short time. When they started dying their deaths became a fascination, millions of people who didn't even know them were affected by their deaths. So by telling me all this cheat death bullshit, you're telling me that anytime I got on my computer and typed Alex Browning in the little search box, anytime I read a newspaper article about him, anytime I skimmed through a book about him, I could have been cheating death?" Janie stood up and walked to Riley, putting her hand around his wrist.

"Wasn't your aunt Val Lewton? She was burned in a house fire after being stabbed to death. Maybe she had something to do with the fact that you're alive today." Janie said to her friend, who didn't look too pleased with what Janie had just said. "I still believe that Alex Browning murdered my aunt," he said, glaring at Ryan. "Janie, you don't believe this shit do you?" Riley asked her, looking into her now tears streaked face, just as fresh tears started to fall. "Right before Carter died I was diagnosed with cancer, I was in the hospital and one day he came to see me. I was quite a bit younger then he was, he said he knew what I was going through, looking death in the face. He said I had to be brave and he gave my hand a squeeze, he told me I was going to cheat death. Later that day he signed up to be an organ donor, and donated his bone marrow to me."

She looked at her shoes, sniffled, and wiped her eyes. "I made a full recovery, I didn't even know that Carter liked me. He was always bullying me, and I guess I was wrong. He visited me everyday until I got out of the hospital, I made a full recovery and to this day I have no signs of any type of cancer, I'm healthy, I'm alive because of someone who was meant to die." Riley could no longer look at her. He didn't want to admit it but he was beginning to believe what they were saying about cheating death. His dead family member had also saved him.

Riley thought that if anything he should tell Janie. "I was...I was going to go to this Nightmare on Elm Street convention, but Aunt Val called and said she needed someone to help her pack, my parents sent me over there to help her. I was disappointed at the time, but I did care a great deal about my aunt and seeing her a few days before her death seemed to take her mind off of her troubles." Riley paused shortly to lean on the shelves behind him, making eye contact with Janie and then finding his eyes resting on the gruesome fate of Adam. He shivered. He had seen Adam's body when he first walked up but now it made what Ryan was suggesting seem real. "I ended up staying late enough to miss the convention, it would have disappointed me if it hadn't saved my life. There was a psycho who attended the convention; he must have wondered what it was like to be Freddy, to kill other human beings, to take a life. He brought a gun to the meeting and killed nearly thirty people. When I saw the news I thought, that could have been me. Now that I think about it, it probably should have been me."

He started rubbing his fingers against the spike necklace that had killed him in Ryan's vision. He removed the necklace and handed it to Janie, who was staring at him. "This is for you, in case you make it and I don't, I want you to remember me, and I want you to know that even though it probably doesn't matter now, I had feelings for you. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner. When you think about your death you always think that it's going to be sometime when you're old. If I'd have known that I would die so soon I would have told you." He pulled her against his muscular body and kissed her, violently. She started to pull away, but he wouldn't release her. He pulled away, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't die without you knowing how much you meant to me." She touched her lip and noticed it was bleeding from the violent kiss, she watched as it glistened in the light.

Janie looked over at the pile of human remains that once was her friend, Adam. She decided she didn't want to hurt Riley. She also decided that she strongly believed what Ryan was saying and suddenly she felt overcome with emotion towards Riley, she didn't want him to die; she didn't want him to become a pile of human remains, just like Adam. "Ryan, who's next on death's list?" Janie asked Ryan. He looked down, "In my vision, Adam died first, then Katrina, then Wes, then Amy, Riley and you follow soon after and your boyfriend dies last, although I didn't see him die." Janie started to run towards the freezer, leaving the others to look behind her in shock. Riley and Ryan decided it would be best to follow and hurried after their friend.

They were inside the refrigerator when they noticed a cart on wheels pressed against the door. The cart was full of cases filled with supplies; Katrina had probably not even noticed the door was locked yet. The three of them ran towards the cart, but the cart was wedged between two shelves that happened to be rooted into the ground. The cart was heavy and wouldn't move a single inch, as if it were another of death's cruel acts, a case feel off of the cart and was aimed directly towards the three of them.

Katrina Williams shivered as she entered the freezer. She hated the cold. She heard the beating of rain on the tin roof above her; it seemed to echo throughout the room. The sound surrounded her, causing her to feel boxed in as she was greeted by a white cloud of fog upon entering the freezer, just like the one from Janie's box. Suddenly the three fans mounted on the wall started loudly. Katrina jumped and looked up; shelves full of boxes surrounded her. Everything was covered in a thin layer of frost.

She was unaware of what had just happened to Adam and probably wouldn't have been very sympatric if she had known. She couldn't wait to leave the freezer; her exposed flesh was starting to ache. She actually couldn't wait until she got home. She frowned at the thought of leaving the freezer and being faced with the crew from the other Best Burger.

Katrina disliked being around so many young people all of the time; she was in her late thirties and had no idea what most of the stuff they talked about was. Today she really couldn't wait to get home, her husband was coming home and bringing her and the kids to a movie. The knob to the freezer door turned while her back was to the door and she didn't notice. The axe that was resting against the door fell to the floor and made a loud noise, causing her to look up, she realized the door was locked.

She was not someone who did well in situations such as this one. She had never been in a situation like this and she started panicking, trying to pull the door open in vain. She could hear something on the other end of the door that she assumed was a person. She started to scream, "Let me the fuck out of this fucking freezer!" She heard a faint voice on the other end of the door reply to her, "We're trying, this cart is wedged..." She didn't know if the voice was a male or a female, she didn't even hear the rest of their reply.

She spotted the axe on the floor. An idea flashed through her mind. If she used the axe to cut through the door she could be out of there and be free from the aches and pains in her body. She looked down at her hands, they were red and they felt as though they would soon fall off. She quickly grabbed the axe and swung it towards the door.

Janie, Ryan, and Riley struggled with the cart, as they noticed a falling box and quickly moved to the side to avoid being hurt by it. They could barely hear Katrina on the other side of the door and they wondered if she was unharmed. They prayed that they would be able to help her. They hoped that death did not claim her yet. They could hear some type of scratching sound on the door. "What do you think it is?" Janie asked. "I don't think I want to know," Riley said. Riley had decided he'd seen enough death for the day and he prayed they'd be able to save Katrina.

He loved to watch violent movies but he had never imagined that someday he'd have to go through something like this. He pulled a little harder on the cart, using all of his muscle to try to move the cart. It hurt him to pull that hard against something he knew wasn't going to move, but he had to try. He would feel to guilty about it if he just gave up. If a life was lost and he hadn't done all he could have to stop death then he'd truly hate himself. He imagined that Ryan felt the same way as he did about this whole situation, it was as if they had formed a bond through trying to save that one life on the other end of the door.

The door was made out of metal and the axe probably wouldn't help her. She had to try anyway. She picked up the axe and swung it towards the heavy, metal door. As it scratched the surface of the metal door, it flew out of Katrina's hands. It seemed to be going in slow motion from there but Katrina could see that it was going straight towards her head. She had no way to move out of the way of the oncoming axe, the axe plunged into her forehead. She toppled to the ground, the axe sticking out of her head. Blood dripped onto the floor and she felt the last pain she would ever feel in her life.

I'm dying, she realized. The pain in her head was worse then she had ever felt and she wondered why she didn't die instantly. Her blood was dripping onto the floor and freezing, although she couldn't see her blood, she could feel it freezing. She coughed, all the sounds around her were fading and her vision was starting to blur. She thought about her children one last time and she prayed that her husband would know how to take care of them. A tear rolled down her face and froze, she loved her family and now she was realizing that she'd never get to see her family again.

She closed her eyes and started to allow herself to die. She knew there was no point in fighting to live and whoever was on the other side of the door wouldn't be able to save her. Her last thought as she passed away was of how stupid she had been to attempt to open the door with the axe. Just as she died the doorknob turned and unlocked and the door swung open. Her cold, dead eyes opened to look up blankly at the ceiling.

On the other side of the door Janie, Ryan, and Riley continued to struggle with all of their strength, just as the refrigerator door opened and the manager who had witnessed Adam's death walked in. "What's going on?" she asked, a police officer walked in behind her. It was officer Mitchell. They didn't answer and kept to struggling with the door. The cart suddenly released from the place where it had been wedged, causing the three of them to stumble back, falling into sitting positions. Ryan was the first to move from the place where he had been thrown. He ran up to the door and pulled it open with all of his strength.

He peered through the opening, and quickly turned his head away and vomited. The other two knew they did not need to see what was in the other room. Katrina Williams was dead and they all knew it. Riley took Janie in his arms and attempted to leave, the police officer stepped into his pathway, "Son, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here while I go see what's in that freezer." He walked into the freezer, quickly regretting walking into the freezer.

He was greeted with the sight of Katrina William's dead, nearly frozen body. There was an axe sticking out of her head and Mitchell knew he was never going to forget the image that was at his feet. Blood had dripped out of her head and had frozen on the metal floor of the freezer. He could see a part of her brain. Her eyes were the most troubling thing about her. Her dead eyes stared up at the ceiling, blankly. He knew they had once been full of life and expression. The sight of her upset him, he'd never be able to forget those eyes, he knew he'd dream of them that night.

He'd probably dream of those eyes every night for the rest of his life. He hated dealing with the dead. Every time he saw a dead body he remembered it and he knew he'd remember this until the day that he died himself. He frowned and turned to leave the freezer. He could still remember the first time he had ever seen a dead body. He had still been a new cop, he was investigating a domestic violence call, when he arrived there he was too late. A girl that had once been a beautiful blonde was lying on the floor dead when he arrived, her hair was streaked with blood and her eyes held the same look as Katrina's. Her husband had been arrested for the crime but to this day he still thought of that blonde. He knew that it would be the same with Katrina Williams.

He had nothing left in his sad little life and his only escape from his tortured mind was his work. It wasn't always that way; he used to love his life. He was a newlywed, still on his honeymoon. He'd met the love of his life. He went out to buy her a surprise, he was so proud of himself for picking out the perfect gift. When he arrived down the hall to his hotel room he noticed the door was wide open, his beautiful bride was not far from the doorway, a mess of blood and organs. Someone had decided to rob them and kill his beautiful wife. He'd never forget her and he knew he would never replace her. To keep his mind away from thoughts of her, and if there was any chance he could have saved her, he worked. He didn't like going to home to his empty house with pictures of him and her smiling up at him.

He looked up to notice the troubled looking bunch, hovering together in a vein attempt to warm themselves. "I'll have to take statements from all of you, follow me," he led the way out of the refrigerator. He'd have to call in for the proper authorities to clean up the remains of Adam and Katrina. He frowned as he walked forward; he hated the thought of these young people dying. He was almost positive that the murderer was one of the group that followed him out of the refrigerator. His partner greeted him, standing over Adam's body. "What did you find?" Kirk asked. Kirk was so young and new at this that he always hoped for the best; Mitchell knew that would change soon, although he hated dashing his partner's hopes with today's disappointment. He bit his bottom lip before he reported today's disappointment to his young partner. "Katrina Williams is dead in that freezer, I'm not sure how she died." Kirk's face fell. He hated hearing the worst.

Kirk was the younger and more native police officer, it bothered Mitchell that he was kind to what Mitchell believed where criminals. Kirk followed the bunch to the crew room of Best Burger. Mitchell figured that would be the best place to do the questioning. The crew room was a small room with a table and a few chairs in it. Crewmembers' belongings littered the room and there were fliers all over the walls. "Please be settled," Mitchell demanded. Everyone expect for Kirk and Mitchell sat at the small table. Ryan glared at them, Janie looked down, Riley held Janie's hands and attempted to let her know he thought she was going to be all right. The manager sat and stared impatiently at the two officers. "Can you hurry, I have to get back to work?" the manager asked, as though she didn't care that two of her co-workers had just died.

Everyone else was silent and the manager wasn't even given a response. Ryan was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, he knew they were going to question him anyway, so he thought it would be best to get his theory out in the open. "Adam and Katrina were just the first to die, we're all going to die, one by one. Death's using us as pawns in a cruel game of chess and if we don't cheat death then death will pick us off one by one, like flies. Do you really want to deal with that?" Ryan asked the officers before him. Kirk looked confused, "So you're saying that you're going to kill all these people, all your friends, all the people settled at this table?" "No, I'm not, it's death's design, if we're not smart we die, that's why I said that we are like pawns in death's cruel game. Do you know, my cousin was Alex Browning?" Ryan said as he looked down, "I'm beggaring to think this is all some family cruse."

"I know who Alex Browning is, I've looked him up on the Internet every single day since I saw his dead body. It was the first time that I had ever seen a dead body and I was told there was a story behind it, maybe the curse of Flight 180. I looked him up everyday after that; he and the other survivors intrigued me. I wanted to know, I needed to know more about them. It was like a drug to me, not a day goes by that I don't think of those kids. The truth is, you're cousin saved my life." Kirk said. Ryan looked up, examining him closely, as though wondering if he had just been told the truth. He couldn't decide if he was or not but he realized that Kirk was his only hope, he knew Mitchell wanted to send him to prison, forcing him to live out the rest of his life in a dirty jail cell. "How'd he save your life?" He asked.

Kirk looked down at his hands for a moment and then made eye contact with Ryan, something Ryan was sure he wouldn't have done if he weren't telling the truth. "I was on my way to a friend's bachelor party, it was a few blocks away from where they found Alex's body, it was a cold night and I ended up taking a short cut that lead straight to Alex's body. I know I was off duty at the time but it's in my nature to care. I wanted to help the boy, he was already dead and there was a girl screaming, holding his body. It was Clear Rivers; I had my cell phone on me so I called the station. I asked the poor girl what had happened and she said all this stuff about cheating death. After some officers where there I left to go to the bachelor party, I'll never forget what I saw when I approached the building. The roof had caved in, all my friends had died, and I would have died too, if it weren't for Alex. After that I became obsessed with Alex and his friends." Kirk's eyes filled with tears. There was no doubt in Ryan's mind that he was telling the truth.

"You've cheated death as well, you're going to die sometime soon too," Ryan told him. It was an odd statement in the quiet room. Every eye in the room was on the tormented boy sitting in the center of the room. A few weeks ago the boy had everything on his mind other then death. Now he was consumed by nothing other then death itself. Death was staring the now haggard boy straight in his face, as though to changed him. "Did you kill these two people? Did you kill Katrina and Adam? No one had control over death unless they cause death, so tell me Ryan, did you take their lives?" Mitchell asked. "No, I didn't, I couldn't look another person in their eyes in take their life, I also can't stand by and do nothing while these people keep dying," Ryan said. "Ryan, how do you know these people sitting in this room with you are going to die?" Mitchell asked him. "Everyone dies sometime, you can't cheat death but I'm going to try to lengthen our lives. We're on death's list and we're going to die, now, in the order death has planned for us." Ryan looked him directly in his eyes, the officer knew he had nothing to hold Ryan on but wanted nothing more than to lock him up, simply because he gave him the creeps.


	5. Chapter 5

Ryan's speech had really struck a nerve with Riley. He had always known that someday he would die but he didn't want to die just yet. There were so many things he had to do before he died. He knew his time on Earth was already supposed to have been over, he cheated death twice and was somehow still alive. The more he thought about it, the more meaningless human existence became to him. He wasn't living the way he wanted to live before he was on death's list, he thought now was a good time to start living his life. If he was going to die anyway he might as well make the best of it. He was going to do everything he wanted to before he died, he wasn't going to be scared of death or try to run the other way. He was smart enough to realize that no matter now many times death skipped you it would come back sometime in your life and he didn't want to always be looking over his shoulder for something he couldn't see but knew was there, waiting for him. He just wished that death wouldn't go as hard on him as it had on Adam and Katrina.

He hoped his death would be painless, but part of him wondered what it would be like to die. It was something most humans don't think about, he had been thinking about it a lot since Ryan started telling him all those stories about Flight 180 and cheating death. Ryan was holding a meeting at his apartment that night and Riley was walking to it, with his troubled mind guiding his way. He told himself he was only going to humor the others but he knew a part of him wanted to hear if there was any chance of him surviving for a little longer. He knew he wasn't next but it was horrible to know that you were about to die. In a way, it was a blessing and a curse, depending on how you wanted to look at it. In a way it gives you a chance to do everything you have ever wished to do, but were afraid to, on the other hand, you'd be dying soon so you couldn't enjoy anything. Riley told himself that he was going to live the way he wanted to, now that he knew the end of his existence was near.

As he walked along the path that lead to Ryan's apartment, it started to rain, soaking his perfect Mohawk. He didn't care much about appearance anymore. All the years he had spent caring about his appearance, just to come to the realization that it didn't matter to him. He stuck his hands in his pockets as he approached the poorly kept apartment building. It was a two story apartment complex that had four single apartment units in it. The paint was peeling but he could clearly see that the address was 180, as Ryan had told him earlier that day. He shook his head, he couldn't believe that he was going to set foot in a place that looked like that, but then he gave it a second thought, he knew the appearance didn't matter. He stepped through the doorway, surprised to find the inside was kept up better than the outside. He began searching for the apartment that Ryan had told him he lived in, eager to get the meeting done with.

He finally found the apartment and was surprised to find everyone else was already there. He couldn't believe that they had taken Ryan seriously enough to go to the meeting. He walked into the room and took a seat next to Janie and her boyfriend. He didn't care much for Janie's boyfriend, in fact, he wished that he was Janie's boyfriend. It nearly tore him in two to see them cuddling next to him, as if death wasn't an important subject. It sickened him and he turned his attention to the others in the room. The others in the room seemed to have no understanding that their deaths were near. Amy and Wes seemed to be arguing again, it seemed like that's all they ever did these days. As he turned his attention away from them he suddenly released how small the group was. Six lives, six people in that room, waiting to hear their death sentence. Riley shuddered and then focused his attention on Ryan, who was about to say something.

"I know most of you are wondering what I could possibly have to say to you. I'm sure some of you in this very room might believe me to be a murderer. I promise each and everyone of you that what I am going to tell you is not a joke and you should not be amused by it, I'm not lying to you, and I know it seemed a little, out there." Ryan paused and looked around the room, he was very uncomfortable with seeing all the people in the room, he knew they were all marked for death and if he looked around the room he was going to think of their deaths. Seeing Adam and Katrina dead had been hard for him, he couldn't sleep and had barely eaten anything. He had to force himself to eat, but he wondered why he even bothered.

The visions of Adam and Katrina's dead bodies refused to leave his tortured mind. He didn't want to see any of the people sitting before him the way that he had seen Adam and Katrina. He glanced around the room. He'd never seen any of the Best Burger employees in anything other then their Best Burger uniforms. Janie looked stunning in her black mesh baby doll top that had a tank top underneath, with a pleated skirt and black leather boots that went all the way up to her knees. Jeremy wore a sweater and khaki pants, over some plain light colored boots. Riley had his hair pulled up into a Mohawk, he wore an over sized shirt and bondage pants, along with his many chains and bracelets that he always seemed to wear. Ryan could now see that Riley had a tattoo of a dragon on his upper arm. Wes and Amy still had their uniforms on, it appeared that they had came right after work.

All the eyes in the room were searching him, as if he had the answers to everything they wanted to know. He just hoped that the people sitting in the room would believe his answers to their unanswered questions. He just hoped he was able to save them from the fate that was awaiting them, or at least, delay the fate that was awaiting them. The television was on and a life insurance commerical was on. It caused Ryan's nerves to get more on edge. He struggled in his mind with the words he was planning to use to explain his theory about their deaths. He cleared his thoart, "My cousin was Alex Browning, I'm sure everyone in this room has heard of him." He paused to look around the room, Amy looked a bit confused.

"My cousin had a premonition, just like mine, when he boarded Flight 180. He got on that plane and he saw everything happen, the way that I saw everything happen. He got his friends off of the plane, I got you out of the restaurant. The plane exploded, Best Burger brusted into flames. Here's the part I wanted to discuss with all of you, after they got off the plane a month went by, then Tod Waggner was found dead in his shower, Terry Cheney, was hit by a bus, Valerie Lewton was killed in a house fire, Billy Hitchcock had his head chopped in half by a piece of deris from Carter Horton's car, Carter Horton was hit by a falling sign, and my cousin, my own flesh and blood, was killed by a failing brick while his girlfriend watched and could do nothing to stop it." When he talked about his cousin everyone in the room could see that he was fighting back tears. "Clear Rivers died in an explosion," Janie finished for him.

Ryan appeared grateful that the attention had shifted from him, onto Janie. She stood up and began to speak, "After Ryan's proemotion, Adam and Katrina died, death hunted them down, just like it's going to hunt us down. We cheated death once and now we're all going to die unless we help each other." "You're insane," Amy said, she pulled Wes up and headed for the door. "You're next," Janie yelled after her as Amy and her unhappy boyfriend walked into the foyer. "What the fuck are you going to do? Kill me? You better not touch me, I'm pregnant, you're ass'll go to jail for double murder." Amy said, embarrassing her boyfriend. Janie assumed that the baby wasn't his, it would explain the fighting. "There's no such thing as double murder, two counts of murder, bitch!" Janie replied. Amy didn't say another word, but she rushed outside with her boyfriend trialing behind her.

Janie shut the door, she already knew her boyfriend was on there side. "Could death really claim a pregnant life? I mean, could it really take them both out?" "I don't know," Ryan replied, "Riley, did you look up what I asked you to?" "Here it is," he stood up and dug into his pocket for something, then handed a folded piece of paper to Ryan. Ryan unfolded it to find the directions to the mortician that Alex had written about in his notes. Alex had become obsessed with cheating death near the end of his life. He had written several thousand notes, which Ryan had stolen from his house after Alex had passed away, he just wanted something to hold on to the memories of Alex.

Ryan was lost in his own thoughts when Jeremy finally spoke, "What do you think this guy's going to tell us? Do you think it'll help us?" It was a question Ryan wouldn't be able to answer. "I don't know, Jeremy, my cousin mentioned him a lot in his notes and I'd like to see what he has to say to us. It can't hurt to see what this man has to say," he finally responded. "How long do you think we have until Amy dies?" Janie asked, it seemed like a horrible question to ask and she wished that it would have sounded some other way, but to her all it sounded like was her waiting for someone to die. "I don't know, do you think death's going to claim her, or do you think it'll skip her and go to Wes, since she's carrying a child? I saw her die in my vision but I don't know if death will spare her because of the unborn child." Ryan told her. "Well, if you saw her die, I think she's still on the list and she's still going to die," Riley stated. Riley looked as if he was struggling with his own thoughts, Janie put a hand on his arm, "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked. "It's just that maybe I don't want to fight death, if it's my time to die, then maybe I should just die. I'm going to die anyway, why prolong my death? I just think that maybe I should be living my life differently now that death is after me," he informed her. "I don't want you to die, I don't want to live in a world without you," she replied softly.

She looked down, as if she were embarrassed of what she had just said. "Please at least come with us to see what this Bludworth man has to say?" she begged. He knew that despite what he thought, he was going to go with them, he was curious to see what this man had to say. He knew he wasn't immortal and he knew even if he managed lengthen his life, he would die someday anyway. His body went limp and he shrugged, " Fine, I'll go, I wonder what he has to say to us anyway, and I wonder how it could help us. We're not immortal, we'll die someday, so I can't see what this man's going to say to his us." He rubbed the bottom of his black and white converse shoe across Ryan's dirty carpet.

Riley knew the other three were staring at him, "Stop staring at me and get the car keys. Who's driving?" he asked them. "Well, I guess it should be whoever's last on the list, that's you, Jeremy," Ryan said, although he hadn't seen Jeremy die he was sure that Jeremy had died after everyone else. He hoped that he was right, he couldn't bare seeing another corpse. Janie dug in her purse and pulled out her car keys, but she quickly replaced them. She had just gotten her new 2006 Mustang and was not planning to risk anyone, even her boyfriend wrecking it. The thought of someone dying in it troubled her, but she knew she had more important things to worry about.

"It's okay, Janie, we'll take my car," Jeremy said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a rabbit's foot key chain. He didn't believe in luck of any kind, good or bad, but a it had belonged to a friend of his before he had passed away and Jeremy liked to keep it, to remind him of his friend. Seeing that he had gotten his keys everyone else followed him outside. "Should we be doing this? Should all of us get into that car? I mean, death could take us all at once if we're together. We could all still die in the order death meant for us to die, in the same way, our brains would stop functioning at the same time but we would all just die together, like we were meant to," Janie said. Everyone stopped and turned to look at Janie, it had troubled them to think that she was right. "We have to do this, we have to, we're not risking anything that isn't already on the line," Ryan said. Riley couldn't tell from Ryan's tone if he was having thoughts similar to the ones Riley was strugling with. The thoughts of how meaningless his life seemed when he was so close to death.

"I want to do something great with my life before I die," Jeremy suddenly realized, speaking his thought and allowing the others to think about it. "You have to think about that, you're alive and you're not supposed to be, you see what these survivors did to us, do you really want to do that to someone else?" Ryan asked him. "Well, I don't think anyone here minds that they got to live a little longer," Jeremy replied, getting a little aggravated. "I mind," Riley said, voicing his thoughts for the first time. "I mean, think about it, I would have died happy, not knowing that I was going to die before all this happened, now I have to make a choice." "What choice?" Ryan asked him, raising an eyebrow. "The choice of if I should even consider fighting death or should I just be happy that I got this chance to end my life the way I want to, doing all the things I wanted to but didn't dare to, when I was supposed to be alive. Now I'm supposed to be dead and I'm faced with this decision, just like the rest of you."

"Come on, we should go before it gets to late," Janie said, grabbing Jeremy's arm and leading him into the car. "Yeah, that's the last place I want to be when it gets dark," Ryan said, trying not to think of the ideas that Riley had just put in his head. The sky was already dark and it was still raining, and Ryan figured that he had not thought of the most clever thing to say. Everyone was too busy trying to ignore what Riley had said to worry much about what Janie and Ryan had said. The sky was already dark and Janie looked back at Riley for a brief moment, noticing that he had a flicker of something she couldn't identify yet, but she knew that she had felt that feeling before. He was rain soaked and she felt sorry for him, but she didn't have any reason to, they were in the same position. She turned back to look at the vechile they were taking. Jeremy's red Ford truck stood before them, there were two rows of seats, Janie and Jeremy sat side by side in the front seat and Ryan and Riley took their seats behind them in the back.

Jeremy started the truck and put it into drive, he had a worried look on his face and Janie thought she probably looked as worried as her boyfriend. Rain beat on the windows, seeming to become louder by the minute in the silent truck. Janie looked out the window as they sped down the highway, along with the hundreds of other cars, going unnoticed. To Janie it seemed like they didn't matter to anyone else in the world other than the people inside the truck, fighting for their lives. She briefly wondered what the other drivers would think if they knew, or would they even care? The only people they would matter to would be the handful of people who knew them when they were living and to think about it, some of those people probably wouldn't even care. The thoughts saddened Janie, as she saw a blurred out vision of an ambulance beside them. She thought of it as a sign of things to come and shuddered.

Riley must have noticed the ambulance, he started to speak and then silenced himself. "I'd like to hear what you have to say, Riley," Janie said, looking at him through the corner of her eye to only see a blurred out male in the backseat. "I was just thinking about...well, doctors claim to get into the profession to help people but then they charge thousands of dollars to save the lives of another human being. I don't call that caring," he said, the others knew it was true and also knew that none of them could afford a hospital bill if they needed one. Riley countied to speak the truth that they all already knew. "What if death comes for one of us and doesn't completely take us out? We'd need to go to the hospital and what if we couldn't afford it? Most of us can't and I know that I don't have insurance. Do you think the doctors would be so cold hearted as to let us die on that table in front of them, while looking into their eyes and begging for help? Janie, you're an organ donor, say we get a really bad doctor and they see you're driver's license says organ donor, or somewhere in your records, what if that doctor had a kid who needed your heart or your lungs? Do you think the doctor would play a role in your death or do you think they would save you so that their kid could die?" Riley had a crazed look in his eyes.

"If you put it like that, me giving my organ or someone taking my organs would have caused someone to live that wasn't supposed to and death would be back for them. Anyway, I'd want my organs to help someone else, that's why I signed up. The way I was supposed to die, no one would have gotten my organs, they would have been destroyed, same as Carter's," she told him, knowing that Carter was the reason she was sitting in that truck living and breathing with the rest of them. "What about the first way you were supposed to die? All your organs would have been fine then, someone could have used them," Riley said. "Not the same someone that would get them now, and who's to say we haven't cheated death thousands of times without knowing it? Who's to say that because we changed one action in our lives that we didn't cheat death? Maybe we've all cheated death thousands of times and didn't even realize it. Every life has an effect on another life so how are we to know that we didn't cheat death thousands of times and cause people that were supposed to live a little longer to die and people that were supposed to die to live a little longer?" Janie looked like she had a mature understanding of death. Ryan and Riley wondered why but Jeremy already knew. She had already told him, she had a near death experience once and it had never left her mind.


	6. Chapter 6

Ryan was hit with the feeling of nervousness when the truck pulled into the parking lot of the mourgue. It was unexplainable, he should have been happy to be out of the truck filled with so much tension and the sound of raindrops beating on the metal roof of the truck and the eerie glow the raindrops made on the faces of the people in the truck. Janie's story had made him feel uncomfortable, she had died once, how was he going to stop her from dying again? He thought that it was best to not think of those things, that he should just take things one step at a time but he wasn't sure that would be good enough to stop death. He was the first one out of the truck and had almost flung himself out while the truck was still moving.

The nervousness was accommied by a feeling of excitement. He had to know if there was any hope for him and the others that were getting out of the truck. He was waiting for them, Riley had sat behind Janie so he helped her out of the truck. Janie put her hood on, he assumed she didn't want her hair to get wet. Jeremy lingered behing the wheel of the truck for a moment before climbing out of the truck. Jeremy had always been creeped out by the dead and this was the last place that he desired to be. He believed Ryan, but only because of his cousin, Billy. Billy had been more like a brother to him then a cousin. They would do anything for each other, Jeremy even credited Billy for saving his life. It had devasted Jeremy when Billy had died, and when he had seen with his own two eyes, Billy's body, he had passed out. After that he made an attempt to commit sucide, he had seen Billy and he knew that death could take him at any time, it had depressed him so badly that he had attempted to hang himself, only to be found by his father. His father had reminded him that Billy had saved his life and Billy wouldn't have wanted him to die.

Jeremy would never forget the night Billy had saved his life. A few of Jeremy's friends had been going on a trip to Mexico, and Jeremy was all set to go. He had his bags packed and was ready to leave the next day, but Billy conviced his mother that it was dangrous for him to go somewhere alone when he was that young. Jeremy had been angry that he had to miss the trip. In the end he was grateful to his cousin, his friends had all been killed by drug dealers looking to get high with the few dollars that his friends were carrying. It had been a great loss to Jeremy, but Jeremy's life had been full of great losses, and he assumed that's why he liked Janie, hers was also. He knew that she had never thought of herself as the smartest or prettiest and that she often thought less of herself than she should be. She had been through so much and she had survived and Jeremy wasn't going to let her die, she was really the only reason he was there, he had very few reasons left to live.

"Janie, something you said earlier has been bothering me, about us maybe cheating death millions of times. If that was the case then prehaps everyone has cheated death before, prehaps our lives where affected by someone who wasn't supposed to have an effect on it. I mean, think about it this way and see if it makes sense to you, maybe George Washington cheated death, and we were never going to have a president. He became president and that still effects every life brought into this world in America. Just think about it, so many people who might have cheated death, in a way I think maybe everyone could have cheated death," Riley stated what had been burning throughout his brain for the entire forty-five minute car ride. He knew no one would answer him, he turned and walked towards the morgoure.

They all walked, looking at their feet as they did, closer to the building. "I've never been to a place like this before," Jeremy said as they walked closer. Lighting flashed through the sky, causing the four of them to look towards the morgue. It was the eeriest place any of them had ever been, the building was decaying. A few windows were cracked from kids playing baseball in the field near the morgue. The building was an old brick building, a few plauqes were outside of the building. Janie didn't want to look at them, but she found herself looking anyway and saw the name of the man that they were there to see, Bludworth. She looked down at the red leaves near her feet and frowned, leaves the color of blood.

The rain beating on them was cold and as it soaked through their clothes they knew they would be uncomfortable inside of the morgue. "Let's just get this overwith and see if there's anything this man can tell us that we don't already know," Riley said, pushing the door open. He didn't know that he wanted to see this man anymore, a person working in a place like that one had to be insane and he didn't want to worry about some crazed man trying to kill him for the small amount of money he made at Best Burger. Riley doubted that he even had any money with him, his pay check never lasted him very long.

They walked through the doorway to the morgue to be greeted with freezing cold air, making them already more uncomfortable then they already were. There was no possible way to warm up, and they all wondered why it was so cold in that room, although Jeremy doubted he wanted to know. The walls were all bare and painted a brown color, it had been recently painted. There were no windows, no way to see out into the outside world, the four of them felt as though they were in a tomb. Two bodies lay, covered to the neck, on two tables before them. One was the body of Adam Long, the other was the body of Katrina Williams. Adam's body had barely anything left to it, it had been poorly sewed back together and had a massive amount of make up piled on it. Janie reached out and touched the shoulder of her dead friend, his flesh was cold and lifeless. She frowned, she wanted to believe that this was only a joke and the two of them would come to work the next day and be alive and well. She knew she would never see the two of them alive and well again, she knew they were now no more then cold, lifeless, corpses on tables waiting to be buried.

Katrina's head had also been poorly sewed and it sickened them to look but they couldn't tear their eyes away. Janie knew if she walked up to that corpse and touched it the skin would be as cold as Adam's and she would also be as lifeless as he was. She felt Riley place a hand on her shoulder and start to pull her backwards into a hug, a vain attempt to comfront her. "Hello, my guests," said a deep voice that made them all jump. They turned away from the corpses to see that a man had entered from somewhere in the back. He was a tall African American man who's head was shaved, making his face appear to look like a skull in the flicker from a fire somewhere in the back. His face held a creul smile, it sickened Ryan. "Are you Bludworth?" he demanded.

He didn't answer and looked over to the two corpses, "You watched Adam die and you tried to save Katrina. There is no saving someone where death is concrened, you're friend Riley should know that," Bludworth told him, knowing he had sent chills through the spines of his current entertainment. Riley knew he was refreing to the statements he had made and thought earlier, " How do you know my name?" he asked. Bludworth didn't give him an answer, he only smiled at the young boy. He didn't feel the least bit sorry for any of them, even knowing the fate that awaited them. He was used to dealing with people like them, the only people he ever saw were the dead and the soon to be dead. "Can you help us, please?" Janie asked, allowing the stress in her voice to show. "You can't cheat death, you're friend told you that. You can only avoid it for a short time," he smiled evily at the group shivering before him.

"You have to help us, you can't just stand by and let people die," Ryan told him, not knowing if the man standing before them was even sane enough to help him and suddenly regretting being in that building with that crazy man. He walked over to the corspes, putting a paintbrush into some make up and applying it onto Katrina's face. He knew they were all waiting for him to say something, he knew their eyes were burning into his skull. "Please," Janie said, taking a step closer to him. "You have to follow the signs," he said, not even bothering to look up. "What signs?" Ryan demanded. Bludworth didn't look up from his work but Ryan heard him let out a small chuckle. "Like the ice cloud I saw come out of the box before Katrina died?" Janie asked softly. "You got it," Bludworth said, dusting the face with light powery make up.

Janie suddenly appeared angry and stepped up to the overpowering large man. She grabbed the top of his hard in a tight and painful grip. He was stunned and forced to look into her eyes, for once he was caught by surprise. Her eyes held a glare that told him he was in for a fight if he didn't cooperate. "Help us," she said through her teeth. "I can't help you, it's not possible to prevent your deaths, you can only lengthen your lives and what good would that do?" As he spoke those words she tightened her grip on his arm, he didn't she wasn't leaving until she got her answers, his guests often amused him, but there was something in this girl's eyes... "Only new life can defeat death, for a time," he told her, he wanted to get back to his work but these guests wouldn't allow it. "There has to be more to it then that, what good would giving birth to a baby that wasn't supposed to be born or to die just to come back again do? Using a life to gain a life isn't something I am willing to do. I'm also not willing to risk one of us dying and not coming back," she said, glaring into his with the look of pure hatred on her face.

"Why is this even happening to us? Why are we on death's list now and not later?" she asked him. Bludworth knew that he could easily harm her and then she would be out of his way, but having visiors amused him, he lived it when they came to him, begging him to teach them how to cheat death. Bludworth knew that they would all evenually fail and he would see them again, lying on the table in the morgue. "This is happening to you because you are not living your lives the way they were intended to be lived," he told them, knowing they would ask more questions. "Then what way are we supposed to live our lives?" Ryan asked, eyeing some tools in a tray near the table on the table and edging away from them. Bludworth smiled at the thought of the boy being frightened by the tools he used everyday. He was used to the few live people he had seen being frightened of the tools, a few of them dared to ask what they were used for.

"Well, that depends on you, now doesn't it?" he asked Ryan. "What do you mean?" Ryan repiled. "What's right for you isn't going to be right for someone else. It could be something as simple as you not being with the person you're supposed to be with, or living in the wrong house, or for you Ryan, I'd say you were slowly killing yourself anyway," he grinned at Ryan, Ryan shuddered at the sight of his teeth. Bludworth was truly the most sicking human being that Ryan had ever met and he assumed Bludworth was referring to his drug use. Ryan had a few doses of acid in his jacket pocket that his friend had placed there and he removed them and threw them at Bludworth. He had been planning on trying them but assumed that's what he was slowly killing himself with, the drug use.

Bludworth simply chuckled at the boy who had thrown the acid tabs at him. "Silly boy, you think it's that simple?" Janie looked as though she suddenly understood. "If we figure out what we are doing wrong in our lives then maybe we can change it and we'll have a chance at new life and our lives will be lengthened," she informed them, releasing Bludworth's arm. "There's just something that doesn't fit, what about those old people who die in their sleep? Does that mean they didn't do anything death didn't approve of up until the point that they die? It doesn't seem right to me, if that's the case then someone could figure it out and become immortal," Riley said, he was mocking Bludworth with his question, he assumed the mortiation wouldn't have an answer to what he had just said. "You must not understand, there is a reason for everything, every life, every death, it all holds a meaning. You must die because to bring new actions that were never meant to be into the world, no matter how unimportant they may seem," Bludworth paused to chuckle, "well, now that could be dangerous."

Janie understood what he was saying, if the wrong couple had a child they would bring a baby into the world that wasn't meant to be, that baby could end up being the next Hitler, causing mass amounts of people who weren't meant to die to be murdered. "So what did we do so wrong?" she asked him, not knowing whether or not he would answer her. He paused for a few minutes, as if considering if he should answer her. He finally decided to answer her, "You have to discover that for yourselves." Janie was furious, "Look, I know you know this, you know so much else about us, you have to know this. Please tell us." He just smiled at her and returned to applying make up to the corpse in front of him. Riley stepped forward, "Why do you know so much about death? Have you ever cheated death?" Bludworth did not look up from his work, but Riley could see a smile formed on the lips of the mortiansition. "We all have our mysteries, life and death are the biggest of them all."

Jeremy had decided he'd had enough of the freezing room he was standing in. He knew the others must be uncomfortable also, and Jeremy didn't think that this man had really given them any information that couldn't have been found on a computer. Jeremy hated computers but he'd rather be sitting in front of a screen at his home, in dry clothes, instead of in a morgue with dead bodies and a creep who enjoyed maniulating his visitors. He grabbed Janie's arm and pulled her to him, "I think we should leave, this man is insane." Janie signaled for the others to follow her and they all turned to leave. "You don't want to fuck with death," the mortistain said, causing them to all turn one last time and face him. They turned back around and started to pull the door open, "I'll see you soon," he said, as if he were talking to a friend. Janie shot him a angry glance and with that they were out into the rain again. All of them hoping that the truck ride home would somehow warm them up.

Bludworth was glad to have gotten a small bit of entertainment for that day. He smiled to himself, he loved seeing the fire in the eyes of the people who were about to die. There was something about this particular bunch of near death humans that he had never seen in any other. For a moment he thought there may be a small gain of hope left for the four of them. He quickly banished the thought and looked down at the dead bodies before him. They should both be closed casket, only Adam's would be. Both of them had children, if Bludworth would have been a sympathic man he would have felt sorry for the families of the two dead humans. He wasn't a sympathic man and had learned at an early age that feelings only hold you back. His visitors had raised a few questions in Bludworth's mind and brought up things that Bludworth hadn't thought about since he was a child. _Such fire in those who will die soon, _Bludworth thought with a smile. No matter how much he wanted to deny it and become unfeeling, he couldn't deny that certain things this bunch had asked him had chilled even him.


	7. Chapter 7

As Bludworth sat with the two corpses he was forced to remember his troubled childhood and the reason he had become interested in death. He wouldn't want to admit it, and he knew he'd never have to, but he saw a bit of himself in the four people who had just visited him. He had cheated death himself, he'd been lucky though, death had not been able to claim him yet. He could still remember the day as if it were yesterday, although he pushed the memory out of his mind every time it started to enter. He was in the same postion as those hopless visitors were, death would claim him at any day, he was sure he'd see it coming.

He was obessed with death, his obession had become a lot like Alex's. If Alex were still alive he was sure Alex would have the same fate as he did. Bludworth was a professional at the art of cheating death. He did not hide from death, he welcomed it. It had become a game for Bludworth, Bludworth considered it an art as much as poetry was an art. Bludworth was an artist, his artwork was prehaps the most morbid of all. He knew that one day he would die, but he wasn't worried. He considered himself the man who knew death's every move. He often wondered what awaited him in death. He wasn't aware of what it was like to die but as a teenager he had often attempted to find out.

As a teenager he would steal any pills he found in the medicene cabinet. He would take them because of an event in his life that had sparked his interest. He only managed to black out a few times and in the end he had never died. He often wondered why death was keeping him around. He would never forget the day that had changed his life forever. It was the day that caused him to research death, even going as far as to take college classes on it. In the end he realized he knew more about death then any of his bonehead teachers. All he ended up with were his own thoreries on a very serious subject. He had been just like Alex Browning had been before he met his fate with a brick to his face.

When Bludworth was seven years old his mother, father, and little brother had brought Bludworth to a new water park that had just opened. He was overwhemled with excitement, he was thrilled to be in the water park. He had been begging his parents to bring him on the water slide since he had found out about the trip to the water park. They were all standing in line to go on the ride, "Will, are you ready?" his mother asked him, grabbing his hand. "Yes!" he screamed, he was thrilled. "What about you, Kevin?" she asked his six year old little brother. "Yup," he said, but Bludworth could tell he was only going on the ride to impress his brother, he was secertly scared. _The water park was new so there shouldn't be any problems with it._ Well, that's what the six year old told himself as he walked up to the ladder that lead to the slide.

The ride somehow seemed bigger to Bludworth, taller. He looked up at it and was suddenly swept with a cold rush of fear. He frowned, he was letting his little brother get to him. He had never wanted anything so badly in his life as he wanted to slide on that slide. His mouth formed into a smile as he tried to put his fears behind him, something that he didn't succeed in doing. He attempted to dismiss his fears as nothing more than excitement. He failed, as he looked up at the slide towering over him. He didn't want to tell his parents and have his little brother believe that he had "chickened out".

His mother and father were excited also, it seemed they didn't have any bad feelings about the slide. Bludworth had gotten down to his last chance to get his parents to turn back and go home, they were standing at the top of the slide, about to slide down it, holding hands. He smiled at his mother and father and then at his little brother. They all slid down together, at first Bludworth had fun. He enjoyed the feeling of the cool water touching his flesh in the hot sun. He giggled as the water tickled him. He soon came to notice that the pipe for the slide was not held all the way together. Some bolts had come loose from previous sliders. Everyone else noticed also, they screamed in unision.

Bludworth would not let go of his parents' hands, he didn't want anyone to get hurt. He saw it though, he saw his father slide ahead in an attempt to block the others from sliding forward, only to fail and slide so hard that his body was cut in two by the scarp edge of the pipe. He could see veins and organs, he'd never seen those before. From that day forward, Bludworth could never forget the image that he had seen, his father, in half, his body hanging off of the pipe, blood everywhere his organs and veins poking through his dead body. Bludworth started to cry, his father was his idol, he'd looked up to him so much and then he had to witness his death. He attempted to hug his little brother closer to him.

He attempted to shield his little brother's eyes, he released the hold he already had on his little brother to attempt to place his hand over his eyes. His brother slipped forward faster without his brother's arm around him. His brother hit the pipe very close to his father's corspe. The small body had been torn into two halves, the top half countinued down the slide, leaving a bloody trail. The bottom half feel to the ground before Bludworth's eyes. Bludworth was suddenly hit with the quilt of everything he had ever done to his little brother, the fact that he had ever fought with his little brother horrified him. He was saddened by the sight of his dead father and the trail of blood that his little brother's body had left, the body had disappeared and Bludworth thought that his brother's body was probably somewhere on the ground below them.

His mother hugged him closer to her, hugging him into her chest. He sobbed into her chest, he was saddened by the lost of two loved ones and the possiblity of his own death and his mother's possiable death. It was ashame, his parents had always been good people, his little brother had never done anything to deserve his fate and Bludworth couldn't think of any reason why he'd have to die at such a young age. Bludworth looked at his mother, she was a young woman, she'd had Bludworth and his brother as a teenager, Bludworth's father had been one of the rare men who were decent enough to marry the women when they became pregant. Her young face was covered in blood that had sprayed on her. She knew that Bludworth was the only reason left for her living. She had a tear in her eye, they slid forward. _At least we'll all going to Heaven together, _she thought.

Bludworth didn't want to see his mother die in front of him. She was the woman who had given him life and he didn't want her death to be the last thing he saw. He took one last look into her eyes, her eyes were wide with fear at the sight of the oncoming pipe. "I love you, mom," he whispered as the pipe inched closer. Then Bludworth closed his eyes hoped that somehow his mother would live. He never opened his eyes, he just felt the pain of the pipe plunging into his flesh, tearing into his organs and veins. He heard his mother scream and felt her warm blood slash all over him, covering his face. He felt the intenese pain, he knew his body must have spilt in half, he could still feel himself moving and knew his death must have been similar to that of his little brother. He felt his body start to numb and he knew that he was dying.

Bludworth had never quite been able to force the memory out of his mind. It had been a premotion, just like Alex's. When the premotion had been overwith and he had found himself standing there with his happy family he had started to panic. His mother and father had wondered what was wrong and when he told them they believed that he was just making it up. Bludworth had begged them not to go, he had pledded and begged and he had tried to stop them but his little brother had been determinded to go on the ride that had frightened Bludworth so badly. He remembered everything about that day, even the smile on his little brother's face as they stood in line and Bludworth's mother decided to wait on a nearby bench with Bludworth. "I love you and I'm sorry," were the last words he got to say to the part of his family that was leaving to go on the slide. They turned and looked confused, then climbed the stairs to the slide.

"I thought you wanted to go on the slide too. It's all you've been talking about lately. Is everything alright?" she asked him, a truly corcerned look on her young face. "Mommy, I saw us die on that slide and I didn't want any of us to go on it," he was a mere child and had no other words to explain it at the time, although every fiber of his being wished he could go back and change the way things had unfolded that day. "Oh, you're silly," she said, hoping her son would cheer up. She watched her husband and her youngest son start down the slide, they looked back and waved to her. She waved back, calmly, unaware that it would be the last time she would see them alive. Her oldest son was sitting on the bench next to her in tears.She wrapped her arms around him as she watched her son and husband slide down the water slide. She wished that Bludworth would not have been afraid of the ride.

She looked at him for a moment and was suddenly slashed with a warm, red, liquid. The liquid carried a metallic smell and she knew that she had been slashed with blood. She looked up to see half of her younger son's body flying towards the ground. It hit the ground and made a sick sound, it appeared to slightly bounce before stopping. A pair of legs laid on the ground before her, her baby was dead. She let go of Bludworth and rushed over to the blood soaked sidewalk where her son was laying, dead. She paid no attention to the organs and veins and blood, she had to see if there was anyway her baby was still alive, despite his top half still sliding on the slide. He hopes were crushed, a thought crossed her mind that probably shouldn't have, her son said that he had seen them all die. Maybe her son was evil, maybe he caused it, a thousand thoughts that meant excatly the same thing filled the young mother's mind. _He caused it, he killed his brother. _She sobbed, screaming, she punched the sidewalk, causing her hand to bleed.

"Why did you do this, why did you take my son?" she asked, looking up, she caught a glismse of her husband hanging from the pipe, she knew he was also dead. She began screaming and sobbing, she was unaware of the hands around her, dragging her away, she couldn't even feel the pain of her knees scrapping against the concrete. She screamed and reached out for her dead son as Bludworth sat on the bench, looking on. He felt responable, even though he knew it was not his fault he felt that since he had known what was going to happen it was his fault that two of his family members were dead. A single tear rolled down Bludworth's cheek.

He'd never forget that day, that was the day that had forever ruined his life. His mother had to be taken to a metal health facuitiy, she remained there until the day that she died. Bludworth went through foster homes, never finding a place to call home. Several of the foster parents weren't so nice to him, some were, but the simple fact was, no one wanted to call Bludworth their son. He always hoped that his mother would somehow recover and they could be a family again. He often visited her, she probably didn't even notice him. She stared blankly at the walls when he came to visit her. She died when he was fifthteen, the day that she died he went home and took a bottle of sleeping pills, he wanted to join her. It was the first time he'd ever attempted suicide, the thought of dying should have frightened him. Bludworth wasn't afriad of anything now that he had no family.

He had hit rock bottom and there was nothing else he desired more then dying. It was his dream, his fantasy, his reality, all at once. In a sense he was already dead, he had nothing more to care for. He remembered staring down at that bottle of pills on the bathroom counter and asking himself if he was really ready for what death might bring. He didn't think about it for very long before he poured the entire bottle of pills down his thoart. He tried not to gag as the gritty pills slid down his throart. He told himself that he was already dead, he had nothing left to live for.

His body started to numb from taking the sleeping pills. He sank down onto the bathroom floor, curling into a ball and waiting for his world to be over. The world around him blackened as he saw a figure above him, he realized that he had not locked the door and his foster mother was standing above him. He hadn't wanted to be found, he knew that she cared for each of the children and teenagers that she took in and he knew she was going to bring him to the hosiptal. She was nothing more than a dim figure in his line of fading vision. He heard a slight panic and knew that his hearing was also fading.

He hoped that he would die before they brought him to the hospital, he didn't want to be saved from the fate he knew that he would someday have. He wanted to die right there on that blue tiled bathroom floor. He slightly felt the hands cluthing him and dagging him accross the floor. He knew that he was dying. He felt no pain, just a numbing feeling taking over his entire body. He remembered nothing of the car ride to the hospital, he just remember waking up in a hospital bed, bluzzing and clicking noises all around him. He hadn't died, or he had and they'd brought him back. It was just a fading memory for Bludworth, it had been the begganing of several attempts to end his life.

He looked down at the barely visisable scars on his wrists for a moment. He hadn't attempted to kill himself since the day he had turned twenty five. He knew it was pointless, after studying death for so long he found that death wasn't going to take him if it wasn't his time. He wasn't sure when his time would be, he knew he was long overdue. He sighed and looked down at the bodies before him, he considered them forunate. After a moment he decided he didn't want to play with the dead any longer and headed into one of the other rooms, which contained a bed for him to sleep in.


	8. Chapter 8

As they left the freezing morgue and headed to Jeremy's truck a question hung remained in their minds. A question some doubted they could answer. _What am I doing wrong in my life? _It was a question that held a different answer for each one of them. They didn't say a word as they walked to the truck. Ryan stepped in a water puddle, drenching his already soaked pants leg. It didn't matter, if he was going to die it didn't matter to him. He had a feeling he knew what he was doing wrong in his life. He looked down, he knew he had to stop with the drug usage. 

Jeremy was lost in thought, staring blankly into the rainy night sky. He wondered what he might be doing wrong with his life. He couldn't see why death would have wanted to claim him, he was a kind hearted young man. He treated everyone he knew the best way that he could. He always donated money to charities, he was even going to be an organ donor when he died. Whatever it was he couldn't figure it out. He was in the perfect relationship with the perfect girl for him, maybe death didn't see it that way. He had no intentions on giving up Janie, death could take him, he would gladly die for her. Maybe he wasn't intended to die, he'd never had a relationship as serious as the one he shared with Janie and he knew it was the same on her part. Perhaps they had found each other and were no longer meant to die. Maybe it had nothing to do with her or him, maybe it had to do with his parents or something else. Maybe it had something to do with the way he was raised. Whatever it was Jeremy couldn't figure it out. 

He looked over at his troubled girlfriend, knowing that she had similar thoughts on her young mind. He put his arm around her, a vain attempt to warm the shivering girl. "I love you, you know that," he whispered into her ear and then gave her a short kiss. They had both had their share of regrets and disappointments throughout their lifetimes. They were just like any other person, they couldn't figure out why death was after them. "Every life interferes with other lives, every newspaper article, every television show, everything that a person sees during their lifetime has some effect on the way that person's life turns out. That must be the reason that we're dying, if we don't die we're either going to change other people's lives or we already have. We were, in a sense, dead to began with, we aren't living the way we should, so it's as if we are dead. The same went for the Flight 180 survivors, we have to figure out what we're doing wrong before we're allowed to live," Janie said, realizing that she had understood every word that Bludworth had told them. 

Every fate interfered with another, the thought frightened Janie. It had never crossed her mind that she would ever be attempting to lengthen her life. It had never occurred to her that in someway she wasn't living her life to the fullest. It dawned on her, she didn't go to college. She couldn't afford college and knew that no one would pay for her to attend college. She had given up to the thought of attending college altogether. "Jeremy, I know what I did wrong, I know," she pulled him a few feet away from the others so that they could speak in private while the others made their way to the car. "Remember when I told you that I had always dreamed of being a nurse, to save lives. I...I never had the money to go to college and that's why I didn't go." He warped his arms around the girl that had just made the most emotion confession to him that he had ever heard. He ran his fingers through her long hair, as raindrops fell upon it. 

"Baby, I'm going to pay for you to go to college, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I had no idea that's why you hadn't gone to college," he told her, her face was buried against his shirt, he couldn't tell if she was crying or not. He knew that he loved her, he knew that she was the best thing that had ever happened in his life. Every other relationship he had ever had besides her was just a pointless waste of time, a meaningless relationship that only lasted a week or two. He suddenly realized what his life had been missing, she was the reason he was meant to live. The two of them belonged together, he knew that she was the only person he would ever feel that way about. 

"Janie, I figured mine out too. I don't think death is going to come for me anytime soon, I'm supposed to live for you. I've never in my entire life been as close to anyone has I have been to you, I share everything with you. Look, I know I don't have a ring but I promise I will get you one, any one that you want," he got on a single knee and looked up at her, holding her hand, "Janie, will you marry me, you are the best thing in my life and I want to be with you for the rest of my life." She looked around the parking lot to the morgue, there wasn't anything romantic about it. There was something about his words that made the place before her seem romantic, there was a truth in his words. She knew that the person kneeling before her was the person she was meant to spend the rest of her life with. "Yes, I'll marry you, I love you." He stood up and wrapped his arms around her, she was in tears. He knew those were happy tears. 

They didn't noticed Riley approaching them until he cleared his throat. "You two are missing a point that we all have to think about. If this type of new life is actually valid, why didn't Alex and Clear and the other survivors make it much longer than they did? They each had new lives, new friends, a new way of living. Alex and Clear had never said two words to each other before Flight 180, afterwards they ended up dating. Carter, he would have never even considered having a friendly conversation with Alex Browning in the past, just before his death they were friends. Sure, they had no idea about this new life bullshit, but some of the survivors had new lives after Flight 180." Janie noticed that he hadn't mentioned his aunt. 

"Maybe it wasn't the thing that they were supposed to change. Death stayed away from them for six months, how are we to know that these people didn't make another choice that destroyed their lives?" Janie asked him. "We don't know anything, all we know is that we have limited information about these people and the events in their lives and their deaths. All I am really saying is that maybe we shouldn't be trying to listen to every little thing that man in the morgue told us. Maybe we should take it one step at a time and see what happens. Just take a small step back and think of what could happen from following his advice," Riley said. "I wonder if they're still alive," Ryan said, he had been standing behind Riley the entire time, he had gone unnoticed. 

They all wondered weather Amy and Wes were still alive. "Would it matter if they were? They didn't stick around to find out anything, I think that if they fucked up by leaving then maybe they were meant to die. Maybe their way of life was irreversible," Riley stated. It seemed to them that he didn't have a care in the world about his approaching death of how to stop it. He didn't have the same attitude about death as the others had. They were determined to live, he thought that if his short life ended it wouldn't have mattered to him. Perhaps he did care, that caring was buried beneath layers of fear and hopelessness. 

"We should try to find them, maybe we can stop their deaths. Maybe we're not too late," Janie said, she grabbed the arm of her boyfriend and started to lead him towards the truck. Ryan followed but Riley remained for a brief moment to look up at the morgue and wonder why someone like himself had even come to this place. He looked at his own reflection in a puddle near the entrance. His Mohawk had flattened due to the rain, he held a saddened expression. He sighed and made his way to the truck. It was a shame, he had so many unanswered questions. He never would have imanged his life would turn to this. 

He managed to enter the truck before Jeremy started it. "Are we really lucky to be alive? I mean, if you think about it, all we're doing now is running from death. It's like we're scared children and we think there's a monster under our beds. The only think about this monster is that this monster is real and no matter what we do we will be someday destroyed by it," Riley said as he closed his door to the four door truck. "If you put it that way, if you put it that way then nothing matters. Maybe someone in this car was meant to save a life, or influence someone in a way that would forever change their life for the better. Even if we just stay alive for a short while after we were supposed to have died it would make our lives special to have helped other people," Janie stated. "Janie, everyone's going to die someday anyway, how is it going to matter if you live a little longer to save someone, everyone's on death's list. Everyone will die. All we are is a car full of loose ends that death had yet to take," Riley informed her. "Look, Riley, I get what you're saying. It doesn't matter what impact we have on someone's life when everyone is going to die. At least we can prolong our lives, we can live a full life, if we learn from what Bludworth told us," Ryan said. 

The truck was silenced, no one had anything left to say to anyone else in the truck. Everyone thought their own thoughts, some were terrible thoughts, others were hopeful thoughts. Wishing, wanting, hoping, praying, that somehow they could live longer, if only for a short time. Jeremy started the truck, giving it a moment to warm up before driving away from the morgue. Bludworth had made an impression on everyone in the truck, fear, hope, anger, all of those emotions inside the brains of the four humans inside the truck. Janie looked out of her window to see a light go off within the morgue. She wondered what would make a person desire a job such as Bludworth's. She attempted to banish the thought and turned to look over at her boyfriend. 

"Jeremy, where are we going to go? Do you want to look for Amy and Wes?" Janie asked him, thinking that she wanted to go home. She tried to banish that thought, knowing when lives were in danger it was selfish of her to think. A tear ran down her cheek as she thought of how much her family would miss her. She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I don't know where to look for them," Jeremy responded. No one else in the truck volunteered any information about the two. It seemed no one was close to the two of them. "I don't even know where either of them lives. I was never really a friend of theirs." 

"I'm going to bring you home and hope that we can find them in the morning," Jeremy said, knowing that Janie and him would end up spending the night talking about death and he wouldn't be going home. He knew no one in the truck would get much rest that night. The rainy sky twinkled with the glistening stars across the sky. Janie looked up, she would have thought the way the light hit the raindrops on the window was beautiful any other night, tonight she was lost in her own troubled thoughts and not paying attention to the sights around her. Jeremy noticed his distracted girlfriend, he wondered what would happen if they had been wrong about the way they were supposed to live. He guessed that they would die soon if they had been wrong. 

He didn't want her to die, she reached over and held her hand while driving. Perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing to do, he just wanted to feel the touch of her skin. He wanted to touch her, it was as if she was no longer real to him and he had to know if she was still alive. She didn't look away from the window, she would never know the genuine concern he felt for her that night. She was the only thing he desired in life. He decided that he was going to elope with her that night. "Janie, after I drop the others off and bring you to pick up your car I want you to follow me somewhere," he told her. She nodded her head, "I will," she responded, lost in her own thoughts. 

They were heading down a bumpy road, a different path then they had taken to get to the morgue. Suddenly the truck's radio erupted into life. The Offspring's song, "Gotta Get Away" was on. "That's weird," Riley said, looking around, he thought something bad was about to happen. "There's someone around me just a step behind," that particular lyric got all of their attention. Janie, Ryan, and Riley turned around in their seats and Jeremy checked the rear view mirrors. A Hurst with no driver was behind them, it had somehow followed them from the morgue. 

Screaming entered the truck as everyone in the truck realized what was happening. Janie clutched the dashboard so intensely that her hand turned white. The Hurst sped up. "Floor the peddle!!!" Riley screamed, knowing he would be the first in the car to die. Jeremy did as he was told, trying to save the lives of the three people in the truck with him. He didn't see the large branch that had fallen into the road until it was too late. The tire hit the branch, causing the truck to tilt. The truck countied to flip a single time. The seat beats bruised the flesh of the four people in the car. The Hurst stopped, shinning it's light directly into the car. It seemed as though death was taunting them. Ryan's mouth started to bleed, everything was still. The Hurst backed up and drove away. 

Jeremy looked around the car, Ryan was bleeding, his blood dripping onto the roof. Riley was trying to maneuver himself out of his seat beat without landing on his head. Janie was still, unusually calm for what had just happened. Her hair was loose and hung down onto the ceiling of the car, she locked eyes with Jeremy. "Death wasn't trying to kill us this time, death wanted to taunt us, give us a taste of things to come," Jeremy said, speaking to all of them. Jeremy unhooked his seat beat, managing to fall onto his feet. He moved on to unbuckle his girlfriend, she reached out and grabbed his arm. "Jeremy, if death's taunting us and it didn't take us, I mean, I think Wes and Amy are still alive." 

Jeremy knew there was something else she had started to say. It intrigued him, he looked into her eyes and unbuckled her, helping her down. No one had ever noticed that all of the windows had shattered on impact. Janie pushed aside small pieces of glass and crawled outside, leaves and mud getting on her knees. She didn't seem to mind, she seemed grateful that she was alive. Jeremy then countied to pull the other two out before joining her outside. "I'm going to use my cell phone to call the police about the accident," Riley told everyone, as if he were asking permission. Jeremy nodded and Riley walked a distance away from them. Ryan was speechless and leaned against the car. 

It was almost too much for Ryan to take, he leaned there trying to catch his breath. "How did that happen?" He managed to ask, gasping for air. "Death's fucking with us, that's how," Riley said, placing his hand over the phone. He then returned to where he had been standing and waited for his call to be answered. Jeremy turned to his girlfriend, "Janie, what were you going to say when I unbuckled you?" "I was going to ask you, if death's taunting us then how do we know that we figured out why we have to die? How do we know death's not going to claim us, even if we are right?" she looked into his eyes and neither of them had an answer. 


	9. Chapter 9

When the police arrived they were not shocked to see that the officers who came to help them where Kirk and Mitchell. Ryan's face fell upon seeing them. _They'll probably want to blame me for this too, _he thought. He felt rage rush through him and he felt the urge to punch something. He took a few breaths and balled up his fist. He knew that he had to calm down, if not he would do something he regretted. 

The wreck and the police were too much for him to handle. He felt as if his head was spinning in a thousand different directions. He vomited on the concrete, his worry causing him to sicken himself. He had never felt so many emotions in his life as he had felt in the past few days. Not since his vision, at least. He felt a hand on his back as he vomited and wondered vaguely why someone would want to put their hands on another human being while he was vomiting. He looked up through the corner of his eyes and saw Mitchell, he was frowning down at him. 

Ryan hadn't even seen the man get out of his police car. He'd seen him pull up and he'd heard the sirens. His stomach felt uneasy, he knew he was going to be vomiting throughout the night and hoped whatever the police had in store for him wouldn't last long. "Officers, is everything alright?" Jeremy asked them, looking annoyed that it seemed they would be in for questioning. "It seems that we've been seeing a lot of you kids lately," Mitchell said, completely disregarding the fact that he was among a group of adults. Mitchell smiled, causing Jeremy to wish he could punch him. It was against Jeremy's morals to harm another human being but Mitchell was annoying him. 

The dreaded sentence came next, "We'll have to take you kid down to the station. You'll all need to be questioned. I hope none of you had plans," Mitchell said, smirking at the group of adults standing before him. He could feel the pure hatred of the group as their eyes started into him. He had forgotten about Ryan for a moment, he was reminded again when the boy vomited on his expensive leather police shoes. He kicked the vomiting boy, not caring if the vomiting had been done on purpose. "You're going to pay for those, kid," he told Ryan as Ryan coughed up a small bit of blood and held his stomach where he had been kicked. 

He could see nothing other then pure hatred in the eyes of Ryan and he lay on the ground. Mitchell pointed to the police car and made a gesture for them to get in. The standing three entered the car with no problems. He grabbed Ryan's arm and swung him violently into the car, not caring if he harmed him. He hated young people, he couldn't wait until he arrested one of those kids for murder. Inside the police car Janie asked Ryan if he was alright, he attempted to nod and she took him in her arms, a vain attempt to comfort him. He collapsed into sobs, hugging the girl as if he would never touch another human again. 

Ryan hoped that the questioning wouldn't take long. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realized that the questioning might take too long for them to save another life. Amy Kain was next on death's list but he wasn't aware of whether or not death had claimed her yet. For all he knew death had claimed both Amy Kain and her boyfriend, Wes. He didn't want Riley to die, he knew that Riley was next on the list after those two. Although he hadn't known Riley very long he felt a special bond between himself and Riley. It was as if they were brothers, there was something connecting him to each survivors. Each time one of them died it was as if a part of himself had been ripped out. He had felt it when Adam had died, he felt the same thing when Katrina had died. He knew that he didn't care for either one of them but he couldn't explain what he felt because of them. 

Ryan felt a connection to everyone who he had saved, he knew in that instant that Amy and Wes were still alive. He knew that had not perished and had a feeling death was waiting for the others to witness what it had in mind for the Amy and Wes. Ryan figured that death was playing a game with them, as if they were all mice, waiting for a cat to be done playing with them and finally devour them. He frowned as he thought those thoughts on the way to the police station. He felt as if the other passengers where relatives now. 

Everyone sat quietly in the backseat of the police car, Ryan was the only one causing any type of noise. He was sobbing and sniffling. His face was red, he looked as if he belonged in a mental hospital. He knew that everyone among him pitied him. "I don't want your sympathy, we're all on the same list, I don't need you to feel sorry for me," Ryan said not looking up. No one responded, the tension in the car was so intense that it made Ryan feel uncomfortable. 

Each person in the car was lost in their own troubled thoughts. The expressions on their faces looked as though they had all been tortured. Ryan knew that everyone had been though a lot and would countuie to go through a lot. It pained him to know that death being such an intense force would probably not be able to be stopped. _No, I know I can't stop death, the only thing I can accomplish is to slow it. _He put his head in his hands, he didn't want the others to read his facial expressions. He didn't want any of the others to see the pure fear in his face. He had to be brave for the others. He had to pray that there might be some chance that he could save them. 

He barely even noticed the car stopping in front of the police station. It was nothing like Ryan would have thought. He'd see thousands of movies where the police station was a nice, well kept, building. The place he was looking upon was nothing like what he had seen so many times in the movies. It was a plain brown, brick, building with only the address to set it apart from any other buildings. It looked dirty, lots of garbage in the parking lot. The windows were stained with layers of dirt. The building almost looked abandoned. Mitchell walked over to the car and pulled open the door, it was child locked. 

Ryan stumbled out of the police car, it was almost as if he were intoxicated. The others followed him, walking carefully out of the police car. Ryan could sense that they trying to avoid any attention from the police. He took note that no matter what they all did the police would still be watching over them like a hawk. He could feel Mitchell's cold eyes glaring into the back of his head and he felt uneasy. He frowned, hoping this would be over soon. 

The officers lead them to a small room with a single table and eight chairs. They all took a seat, Mitchell and Kirk sat together at the end of the table nearest to the door. Jeremy and Janie sat together, hugging, Riley sat between Ryan and Janie. "I'm sure you're aware we have a few questions for you," Kirk spoke to the group in a tone he would have used for speaking to four year olds. Everyone's eyes were facing the ground, everyone appect for Ryan. Ryan made eye contact with Mitchell, as if he were changeling him. Mitchell returned the angry look into him eyes. 

"What do you want to know?" Ryan demanded in a monotone. He startled Kirk, causing him to look up and see Ryan's unflinching look of pure hatred being driven into Mitchell's skull. He frowned, "Well, I have a list of prepared questions." Kirk gestured to the paper sitting before him on the table. "Everything you say in this room is being recorded," Mitchell informed the room. The faces before him were all emotionless, with the expection of Ryan's look of pure hatred. 

"Can we just get this over with? I'd love to be home before it gets too late," Riley said, attempting to annoy the officers. He loved to annoy and anger almost anyone he could and he could tell that the officers were not assumed by him. "Young man, would you like to spend the night here?" Mitchell asked, sternly. "You've got no fucking warrant. Provide me with a warrant and I will happily stay my ass here for the night, other then that, I'm not answering anything unless I am provided with a lawyer," Riley smirked, looking up a bit through the longest bangs that were curling up. He wished the rain hadn't had that effect on his hair. 

Ryan glanced at him for a brief moment, noting that he was right. "I don't want to sit here and listen to your questions either, all you two do is blame me for everything you can possibly think of. Don't you two have lives other then your work? I'm tired of sitting here in this room, I'm tired of having to here your questions until they are burned into my brain. I'm tired of you blaming me for everything. You'd better have a good reason for me to answer your questions or you can watch me walk out that door and not come back until you've got a warrant for me," Ryan was tired of holding in his feelings but it didn't make him feel any better to have gotten them out. 

The two officers exchanged glances, seeming shocked at the outburst of the two men sitting at the table opposite them. "Look, we just want to know what's going on, first two of your friends die and now one of you called us, telling us you wrecked your truck. Is this some type of stunt? I know all of you have relatives that got off of Flight 180, is this something related to them?" Kirk said in a frustrated voice. Ryan glared at him, "Yes, it is, and you'll never know how it is related to them." He stood and walked towards the door, "Anyone else coming?" He looked back at them to see all three of them standing up and pushing their chairs back under the table. 

"If we thought it would help our situation to sit here and talk to you then we could sit and have all the little heart to hearts you wanted. No matter what you or anyone else does the only actions that matter are ours," Riley said, looking at the two officers before he started his walk towards the door. The officers registered the thought that them leaving wasn't what they had planned. "Please, could you just tell us so that we can understand what you think you're going through?" Kirk asked, grabbing Janie's arm for sympathy. 

There was a light hanging above the table, the type Janie had seen in movies, the type police used to question people. "We're the fucking victims here," Janie said pulling her arm away. Kirk frowned at her as Riley walked over to her side. "Just leave us alone," Riley told him, moving close enough to be on the side of Kirk. Unnoticed by anyone in the room, the light moved closer to where Riley was standing. A cold rush of air flowed through the air. "At least tell us where you had come from and where you were going," Kirk pleaded, searching for any bit of information. Riley smiled, "We were coming from the morgue." That caught Mitchell's attention, "What were you doing at the morgue?" he demanded to know. 

The light started to unscrew itself from the socket that was holding it. It was directly above Riley and Kirk's heads. Ryan thought he saw the lighting in the room brighten for an instant and then dim. The light was almost completely out of it's socket. The light unscrewed itself completely and fell in an instant, smashing into Kirk's head. Electricity was still flowing through it as glass shattered into Kirk's head. Blood soaked his hair, Riley knew the tiny shards of glass where not what killed Kirk as he watched Kirk's body jump with a bolt of electricy and then sit lifelessly in a chair. 

It was one of the less violent deaths they had seen lately but it had still made their blood turn cold. They all seemed paralyzed, staring at the blackened body sitting before them. His eyes had melted and were dripping down his face, they all seemed disgusted but unable to tear their eyes away. It was as if there was a certain beauty in death. For them it was as if they were watching a baby being born, when they were watching a life being drained from a human body. 

Mitchell wore an expression of pure horror. He could barely believe that his partner had just died in front of him. A horrible death. "Shouldn't you have seen that coming, Ryan?" Mitchell asked in a cold voice. Ryan just stared at the body sitting in front of him, he wasn't sure how to react. "Death is coming to collect all the people on it's list," Jeremy spoke up, defending Ryan. "You kids are cursed, I want you out of here. Everywhere you go you cause death, I want you out now," Mitchell started to reach for the gun on the side of his belt. 

"I think we better get out," Janie said, pushing her boyfriend to go further. Mitchell was shaking as he removed the gun and started to point it at the group before him. "GET OUT! GET OUT!" he screamed, pointing the gun at them. He was fully aware that he had never taken a human life before. He didn't want to shot them but he wanted them away from him. He had never seen anything so horrible in his life. His partner had just died before his eyes. He would have never admitted it to Kirk but he cared about him as if he were a son. 

The group moved quickly out into the hallway, shaken by being accused of being cursed. "You think we're actually cursed?" Janie dared to ask in a whisper. "No, we're not, we just avoided death and now it wants to claim us and the others who avoided death," Riley said, trying to comfort Janie. "If there's any truth to anything we've heard about at the morgue, then what if we changed Kirk's life? What if him meeting us caused him to die?" Janie asked. "He was already on death's list," Riley informed her. It was no relief to her. 

In the room behind them, Mitchell stood, staring at the gun. _What is my life worth anymore? I've lost everyone that I truly cared about. I have no family, no friends, no children, all I have is work. I just lost the closest person to me, I watched him die and there was nothing I could do about it. I should have been able to do something about it. I should have been able to save his life. What good is being a police officer if you can't even protect the ones you love? _The gleaming metal gun was starting to look very attractive to him as he thought those thoughts. 

He had truly lost everything in his life that had been dear to him. He felt like a true failure. All of the people he loved ended up dying in the end so he didn't see any point to his life anymore. He checked to be sure that every round of the gun was filled. _Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to stand here in my police office and commit suicide? Can I really just put this gun to my head and end all of my troubles? _He banished his thoughts, the only thing of importance to him was that gun in his hand. 

He took one last look at his young partner's dead body. It sadden him to see such a young life taken so quickly. He slowly moved the gun to his temple. He felt the cold metal against his skin. It was his last chance to put down the gun and go on with his life. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, hoping that there wouldn't be too much pain. 


	10. Chapter 10

"Hey, Janie, can I talk to you alone for a minute?" Riley asked her, shyly, staring down at his shoes. Despite what they had just witnessed she felt the need to talk to someone. She looked over to her boyfriend, he gave her a nod, as if sliently letting her know that he wouldn't mind her talking to Riley. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before nodding to Riley.He took her by the hand and lead her outside of the police station, leaving Jeremy and Ryan alone in the police station with their thoughts. 

It had stopped raining and was now eerily calm. The wind had picked up and was blowing their hair, making it appear to dance in the wind. They were in the parking lot, surrounded by police cars. "I want you to have this in case anything happens to me, as a memory," he said, he started to remove the necklace from around his neck. He handed it to her. Before looking at it she told him, "You don't have to give me anything, I'll always remember you." 

"You know, I've never really thought about death before. I never imagined that one day I might die of unnatural causes. It's not something that the human mind usually processes. Most people just try to live their lives the way they see fit. I never thought that I would be standing here, awaiting my own death. I always thought that I would die as an old man, of natural causes." He looked as though his thoughts were somewhere distant. "It makes you think about your life, your regrets, everything. It makes you wonder if you made the right decisions and what would have happened if you would have made a different descion." He flinched, as though he were hurt. 

She then looked down at the necklace in her hand. It was a black necklace with a large single spike in the center, unknown to her it was the necklace from Ryan's vision. "Are you sure, you love this necklace?" "Yes, I'm sure, there isn't anyone else I'd want to have it," he hugged her. Holding her for a moment. He loved feeling closer to her, he loved the feel of her in his arms. "I'm sorry that we feel like...well, you know, it's hard for me to explain. I really wish that we didn't have to go through this. I wish we could just live normally. I miss how it used to be." He knew how she felt, he closed his eyes for a moment, memorizing that moment in time as they should there in each other's arms. 

It was great for him to hold a warm human body in his arms. She smelled like gummy bears, probably her perfume. Her hair tickled him, he had never felt as alive as he felt in that instant, that second, holding her in his arms. The touch of her making him forget his current battle with death. He regretted that he hadn't expressed himself to her sooner. "You're beautiful, you know?" he asked her, rubbing her back with his thumb as he held her. He never wanted to release her, releasing her would make his approaching death seem real. He didn't want his death to be reality, he just wanted to hold the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen in his arms for the remainder of his life. 

"Riley, I wish that I could express to you how I feel about you, but I'm confused. I feel all these feelings that shouldn't be here. All these feelings that shouldn't exist. I shouldn't have a deep fear in the pit of my stomach everyday. I should have a normal life, one where all this death stuff doesn't exist. One where I know who I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with. One where everything isn't so confusing. One like normal people live," tear streaked down her face as she attempted to explain her feelings to him. 

He decided that it would be best to release her, although he didn't want to. "Let me help you put it on," he said, releasing her and walking behind her. She handed him the necklace and pulled her hair out of the way. He fastened the necklace around her neck. "Promise me you'll remember me?" he asked, desperately. "You know I will," she said as she turned to face him. "It looks lovely on you," he said. She sensed that there was something else, "Is there something you want to tell me?" "Well, I guess since I may never get another chance to tell you, I guess that I should tell you now. Ever since I met you I felt this special connection towards you. I never knew what it meant until I started thinking about my death and life. I'm in love with you, I just wish that I could have had a chance with you before I met my fate," he rubbed his shoe into the mud, it seemed to be a nervous habit of his. 

"I wish I could...I wish I could give you a chance. I guess I should admit that I've had feelings for you, I don't know how to handle them. I guess I never will. I didn't want to ruin our friendship." He looked down, he knew she meant what she had said. He placed his hand on her chin, pushing her face up towards his. He kissed her, he knew he shouldn't have. Lightening struck a nearby tree, they jumped away from each other, and watched it burn as thunder disturbed the calmness of the night. 

"That could have been you," Janie told him, looking into his eyes. She had a shocked look on her face as her eyes darted around. "It could have been, but at least if I die you'll know how I truly felt about you. I have no regrets." He hated how real death was to them, to most people death was merely an afterthought, something they only thought about when they had a near death experience. To Riley death was now something that would be staring him in the face until the day he finally died, no matter how long that would take. 

He pulled her to him one last time and attempted to kiss her lips one last time. She pulled away, "We should go inside." He sensed that she didn't feel comfortable, she belonged with Jeremy. She grabbed his hand, holding it as she lead him back into the building. He knew she cared for him, he knew he would love her until the day that he died. "Janie, please don't forget me," he whispered to her as they walked through the door to the police station. He knew that she wouldn't, that was all he needed to know before he died. 

Ryan and Jeremy stood in the hallway, lost in conversation. Apparently, considering their options to get home and whether they should alreat the police to what had just happened or just let Mitchell deal with it. Janie and Riley approached them, still hand in hand. Janie released his hand to rush into her boyfriend's arms. He brushed away one of her stray hairs as he took her in his arms. At that very moment the four of them jumped as they heard a gunshot through the door. "What the...?" Ryan said, knowing he didn't want to explore the sound, but also knowing that he would anyway. 

He reached for the doorknob, only to discover that it was locked. "Damn," he muttered angrily. He punched the door violently. The door then released, as if someone had been holding it shut. Ryan wished that the door had never opened. He wished that he would never have seen the images that lay before him. He wished that he could erase most of the things he had seen since his premonition. He turned away, he couldn't bare to look at it anymore. 

He couldn't bare to see another piece of gore that he could not prevent. "He must have been considering suicide a few minutes after he kicked us out," Ryan informed them. Janie nervously ran her hands over the spike necklace that Riley had given her. _If you die I promise I'll never forget you. I hope I can save you, I hope we can save you, _were her thoughts as her fingers touched the necklace around her neck. She looked down, not wanting to see the fate that would be their own if they did not figure out death's mysteries. 

_How can you figure out death's mysteries when death is a mystery itself? _She found her eyes dragging back to the sight that she didn't wish to see. Mitchell had shot himself through the temple. The gunshot was so powerful that it had blown the top portion of his head off. Brain lay exposed on the floor of the dirty tiles in the questioning room. Janie didn't want to see where the other half of his head had gone to. She wanted to shield her eyes and run out of the room. 

She heard the police officers running towards the sound of the gunshot. She had not particularly cared for Mitchell but she didn't wish death on anyone. She had witnessed two deaths in less then a half hour. She felt guilty for having a normal conversation a few minutes ago. She also knew that if she had not had that conversation she would have regretted it. She touched the cold metal of the spike, noticing Ryan watching her. 

"I didn't see it coming, I should have, I didn't," Ryan said, almost to himself. He had seen every other death coming, "What if he wasn't on death's list but he had no one left to affect?" "So death allowed him to take his own life?" Jeremy asked. "I don't think so, everything effects people, he had to have some type of effect on his co-workers," Janie said. "Maybe death is balancing the books, maybe one of us figured out the key to being alive and it caused death to change it's design," Riley spoke up. "I don't want someone else to die in my place," Janie said, feeling horrible that it could have been her fault. 

"Whatever the case may be, there's two fresh dead bodies on the ground and we didn't report them. I really don't think we want to be talking about this when the police come over to see this gore," Ryan said, wishing they had left before, or least reported the accident. He shot another glance into the room, he saw with horror where the other half of Mitchell's head had landed. It had flown across the room and blood was dripping down the dirty white walls. The streaks of blood seemed to spell out a number, a number that Ryan didn't want to see at that moment. 

The blood and brains of what had once been a human being laid on the floor beneath what appeared to be a message. Ryan processed and reprocessed what he was seeing before him. He looked at the streaks until his eyes hurt from the contrast of the two colors. Blood red and white. The streaks of blood on the wall left the simple number, 180. Ryan knew that Mitchell must have been alive because of his cousin. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the three behind him, concerned for him. "It's all connected, every last bit of it. Every last drop of blood, everything. It's all because of Flight 180. It's all because of my cousin, Alex Browning." Ryan was lost in his daze, looking at the pattern on the wall. His fate hung over him as if it were a dark cloud. It was as if death was a rainstorm that he saw coming. He didn't want to look at the streaks on the wall that had somehow formed the number, 180. It was as if he were hypnotized by the red streaks on the dirty white wall. He knew that his fate would soon follow the fates of the two men who had died a few minutes after speaking to him. He would die unless he figured out what his life was apparently lacking. 


	11. Chapter 11

Ryan didn't remember how he'd gotten home that night. He didn't remember anything after staring at the blood droplets that were streaked on the dirty white walls of the police station. He figured that one of the three people he had gone with had brought him home. He didn't sleep that night, he couldn't. He frowned as he thought about what had been happening, what was still happening. He didn't like the helpless feelings that he knew he was going to feel each time one of his friends died. 

He looked down at the floor of his bedroom. The clothes that he had worn the day of the prediction laid on the floor, unwashed, as if he were afraid they would cause more death. He picked up the pants and a bright orange card fell out of his pocket. He knew that he had placed it there, it was the card he had seen on the table the day he had the vision. _Death, it happens everyday, but it seems there's nothing you can do to stop it when it wants to claim someone, _Ryan thought, bitterly, to himself. 

Ryan sat on his bed, considering the veracity of what Bludworth had told them. He felt a strong urge to revisit Bludworth. There were things that stood out in his mind, unanswered questions. He felt as if someone were cutting through his brain with a knife, forcing him to think the thoughts he was currently thinking. He thoughts had kept him from even changing his clothing that night. 

He looked down at the clothing he had worn since the day before. He frowned down at it. There were traces of blood on his shirt. He felt disgusting but as he looked down at his clothing he realized that he lacked the energy to shower. He rubbed his hand over his almost shaven head, feeling a thicklet of something he knew must be dried up blood. He felt like a failure for not being able to obstruct people from dying. 

He had failed at a lot of things but he had never felt like such a failure in his entire life. He stared down at his hands and wondered if he was even capable of saving the life of another human being. He felt completely forsaken as he considered what options he had left. He looked down at his hands and frowned. 

It seemed to him that he was useless, there was no reason for him to even go on another day. He sighed and attempted to use his draining strentgh to take a shower. He knew that he had to leave his near empty apartment, he had to at least attempt to save those that wanted to live. If he didn't he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. 

"Dude, are you alright?" he heard Riley's voice ask before peeking into the room. "What are you doing here?" Ryan asked him. "I stayed the night, you freaked out pretty bad. I didn't want to leave you alone to do something you might regret," he said, clearly sensing the trouble Ryan's brain was giving him. "What happened? Is anyone else here?" "No, I'm the only one who stayed. I told them I would look after you. How are you feeling?" 

"Can you tell me what happened because I feel horrible and I think you should let me process whatever happened that you don't want to tell me about?" Ryan said, rubbing his forehead, as if he was in pain. Riley moved to sit down next to him on the bed, knowing what he needed to say would take awhile to explain. "I'm not sure how to tell you this but I think you had a nervous breakdown. I think you wanted to kill yourself. I stayed here to make sure you didn't kill yourself. I stayed in your living room all night, I didn't sleep all night. I don't think that I could have slept, even if I would have tried. I've witnessed too much for my mind to rest. I bet you know how that feels." He knew that Ryan would question him for avoiding the question he knew must be burning into Ryan's brain. 

"Why won't you tell me what happened at the police station?" The tension in the room was thick, Riley didn't want to answer and Ryan thought he would have to brace himself for whatever his friend was about to say. The two hadn't said two words to each other before the premonition and there they said, united by something meant to rip them apart. "Well, you freaked out, you started shouting a lot of stuff about Flight 180 and your cousin and his theories. You grabbed the cop's gun that he had just killed himself with and you put it in your mouth and pull the trigger before anyone could so much as blink," he said, looking disturbed by the memory. 

"If that's the case, why am I still alive? Why am I sitting here breathing this air?" he asked his friend. "The gun didn't fire. I guess death wants to have us in the order we're meant to die. The other police wanted to have you committed but I told them that you were just a little freaked out by what you had just seen and I promised to keep an eye on you." Riley gave a small smile as he looked over at his friend. It wasn't a friendly smile, it was a smile that held a question. "What made you freak out like that?" Riley asked him. "I saw the number 180 on the wall. It's all related, there are no survivors from Flight 180." He looked down at the floor and noticed a small puddle of blood. 

"Why am I not in police custody?" Ryan asked him, not bothering to look up. "Because you scared the fuck out of them, they all thought they were going to die when they saw what happened to the other two." _I get the blame for it all, I guess this is how Alex felt. This is how I will be forced to feel for the rest of my pathetic life. _Ryan's hands were shaking violently before his eyes. "This isn't the way my life was supposed to be." He reflected back to his old life, the one where he loved to get drunk, get high, and party. His new life couldn't be any further from what his old life used to be. 

"I think it's something you're just going to have to get used to. None of our lives are the same. People at work are scared of us, you can see the pure fear in their eyes when they make eye contact with you. People who know you survived this thing won't even look at you. They probably regard you as some type of monster." Riley attempted to keep his eyes locked on the floor but couldn't help looking at Ryan. "Why'd you stay here?" Ryan asked him, wondering why he had volunteered to help him. "I felt kind of like I owed you something, I do owe you something. You saved me, you saved us all." 

"You don't owe me anything, I may have saved your life and a few others but look how many innocent lives were lost that day. Look at the amount of people I couldn't save. We were only supposed to be nothing more than names on a plaque. Look at us, we're treated like freaks! People think we don't deserve to live. I wanted to save everyone but I couldn't. If only I could have saved all of them, or maybe I wouldn't have done anything considering what I know now." Ryan stood up and Riley could see his eyes were filled with tears. It caused Riley to wonder what would have happened if he had the premonition instead of Ryan. 

"I don't know what you saw, I didn't see it. I probably would feel the same emotions if I were in your place. I think you did the right thing by trying to get everyone out. You can't think about the negative, the positive is that you gave a few people a second chance at life. A chance to correct their mistakes. I would have done the same thing, even knowing what you know." The two had truly bonded. 

"What do you think the end is going to be like?" Riley asked, only half aware of what he had just asked his friend. "In my vision, premonition, whatever it was, I saw myself die. I felt the pain, I felt what it was like to die but I never got to see what was waiting for me." He looked down, Riley assumed he must have wondered the same thing himself. Ryan had wondered about death everyday since his premonition. 

"I know it hurt, I know that I felt the pain. I don't know if it's going to hurt the second time. I wish I had the answers for you. I wish I had the answers for myself. I don't have any answers and I can only face this thing one step at a time. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I've wondered why I had that vision everyday since the day it happened. I'm the type of person who fears physics and such. Out of everyone in the restaurant why me? Out of everyone on that airplane why my cousin? I wonder if it runs in my family." 

Riley suddenly felt a rush of guilt for asking someone a question that caused so much pain. Riley had never become used to the feeling of guilt. He always tried to banish feelings of guilt as quickly as they entered his head. This time it was different, he cared about this person. He had only cared about a handful of people in his entire life. "Ry, you're like a brother to me. I wanted to let you know before something happens to us." 

Ryan slightly nodded, he was particularly zoned out. "I wonder if the baby's the key to all of this," Ryan said softly. He had a pained look on his face and Riley noticed how much he had aged since the day of the premonition. He had become mature. Riley could see hints of saddeness and pain in Ryan's brown eyes. Ryan continued to speak, "If the girl has her baby then it'll be a new life." "Maybe it doesn't work that way, maybe she's the only one who'll be saved by the birth of this baby." 

Ryan pondered what the importance of the unborn child would be to them. He wondered if they even had a shard of chance to live. "I think we should find them. I think we should find Amy and Wes and then go back to see Bludworth again. There are questions burning in my brain that I think only he holds the answers to." "They're not going to believe us, no matter how much we try to convince them." 

Riley had already made up his mind that trying to save Amy was a lost cause. She would refuse to listen to what they had to say to her. Her only hope was that she could figure something out herself. "I don't want to see another death. I've seen so much in such a short amount of time. I know that I was meant to die, I just don't want to feel it and see it. I don't want to face my death," Riley confessed. Ryan figured there was something more going on with Riley's emotions. 

"I thought of all people you would be the least likely to care when you're looking death straight in the face," Ryan said, knowing there would be another confession in Riley's reply. This was a side of Riley that Ryan had never seen before that brief moment. Ryan wasn't sure how it made him feel, he knew it made him seem more normal. "I try to be brave, I know I really don't care about if I die or not. The only thing is the people I'm leaving behind." He looked down and Ryan knew there must be someone in particular that he was referring to. 

It didn't take him more than a second to realize that Riley was referring to Janie. "Maybe you should talk to her before you..well, if I can't save you..you know..just to make sure she knows how you feel, man," Ryan was having trouble with his wording. "I already did, she knows. I gave her something to remember me by." Ryan thought back to the necklace around Janie's neck. The same necklace from his vision. He considered telling Riley, knowing that he might have to somewhere along the way. He decided against telling him, knowing that Riley wouldn't have taken the news well. 

"I guess that we should try to find them. Should we call Janie and Jeremy? The more people we have the more likely we are to actually succeed in saving some lives," Riley asked Ryan. Ryan sat for a moment, considering if he wanted to drag Janie and Jeremy through another night of horror. "I'm not sure we should call them, they've been through enough, let them rest." 

Riley stood up and started to walk towards the door, Ryan followed closely. Riley turned to face Ryan, "I haven't found what I'm looking for." Ryan looked confused, "What do you mean?" "I haven't found what I'm looking for in life. When I think about my life it seems uncompleted. So many people get married and have kids and I guess their lives are complete. I just wonder if they've found what they're looking for. I haven't found what I want out of life, I just feel so completely empty. How am I supposed to cheat death if I don't even know what I'm looking for in life?" 

Ryan considered it for a moment and realized he was as clueless as Riley. "How is anyone to know what their life beholds?" he asked Riley. Riley looked down, "Why did we get chosen for this?" Ryan didn't have an answer for him, it was a question he needed answered himself. He was the one who had the vision, he knew it was burning throughout his brain more intensely then it was with Riley. 

"Riley, I don't know how to fill my empty life either. I don't think any of us knows. I think all that we can do is change the way we are." Riley's voice took on a dusky tone, "If we don't know what we're supposed to live for how are we going to survive?" Ryan shook his head at the floor, "I don't know. All I know is that I haven't found my purpose either." In that very statement Ryan realized again that he probably would not be able to cheat death. 


	12. Chapter 12

Amy and Wes walked through the parking lot of their local grocery store. Neither were happy with the other. Wes was wondering how he had gotten himself involved with a girl like Amy. She did nothing but cheat on him and cause problems for him. He knew the baby she was carrying wasn't his, he was honestly just looking for a way to end their relationship. He planned to break up with her in that very parking lot. He looked over at her, eating a vanilla ice cream, she looked as if she hadn't had a care in the world. He knew otherwise, her green eyes had been filled with worry since she had found out she was pregnant. Her normally pretty face had aged more than she would have liked. She even had a few gray hairs in her normally blonde locks. 

The parking lot was nearly empty, only a few cars were parked outside. Shopping carts were placed all throughout the parking lot, a result of people that were too lazy to return them to the proper place. It looked as if a rainstorm might be on it's way. The sky had darkened, along with Wes's mood as he thought about how much it had been raining lately. He hated the rain, ever since he was a child it frightened him. He felt as though it was mother nature's way of letting him know that she hated him. He frowned as he thought about his past. 

Wes's father had been both physically and verbally abusive to his only son. His father often came home drunk and beat on him until his mother was able to tear them apart. His mother had been the only decent thing about his past, he visited her often. She had divorced his father a few years ago. Wes wished it would have been sooner. His father treating him the way he did caused Wes to spiral into a state of depression. Wes had turned to food for a small bit of comfort, he had soon turned into an overweight man with self esteem issues. 

As an adult Wes was now attempting to lose weight, he had lost a good bit. He met Amy one day at a local gym, she didn't turn her eyes away from him in disgust like the other females there had done. There was something in the way the girl looked at him that drew him to her. She started conversations with him, now that he thought back on it she probably had self esteem issues herself. She had probably been searching for a part of herself that she still hadn't found. She seemed to think she would find it in men, she found nothing. Wes had been the best thing that had ever happened to her, although she didn't realize it and never would. 

He looked over at Amy, she was eating a vanilla ice cream as they walked. He could feel the tension between them. "Amy, we have to talk," he caused her to look up from the ice cream and look him in the eye. It was hard for her to look anyone in the eye, she didn't trust people very easily. "About what?" She already knew what was coming, she wanted to drag the dreaded words out as slowly as she possibly could. She felt if she did that it wouldn't hurt as badly. She actually did love Wes, it was just impossible for her to escape her old life. She had formed habits that she couldn't just forget. 

"You know what, it's over, us, we're done," he said in a simple sentence. It pained him to say those words, he truly cared about the girl but knew that he could never be with her. She looked down at her growing stomach, "You know, I don't know who it's for, it may be yours," she said. "I doubt that," he said, not meaning to sound as angry as he did. "I care about you and if that baby is mine I'll take care of it, but I'm not going through all this pain over you. I'm sorry it had to end this way but you have to understand that what you did hurts me. At least you admitted it, I was blind to what you had done." 

For lack of better words she just looked down and said, "I'm sorry," as if that would change anything. She released her ice cream, causing it to fall onto the ground. She didn't feel hungry anymore, she just felt a horrible feeling at the pit of her stomach, as if something horrible were about to happen. Something horrible had just happened to her, she lost the love of her life due to her own stupid actions. A cold wind blew and Amy heard the sounds of a shopping cart moving towards them. She shivered as the wind whipped her hair around her face. 

"Who's that?" she asked, pointing to two approaching figures who seemed to be calling to them. "Riley and Ryan, it figures, the two nutcases," Wes told her. She didn't want to see them or anyone else, her heart had just been shattered into a million tiny, jaggard pieces. She felt as though she were now only a reflection of who she used to be. "I don't want to live without you, Wes," she said, grabbing his arm. He yanked his arm away, violently. "You're going to have to because I'm never coming back to you." The shattered pieces of her heart plunged down to her stomach. 

"It's better if we break up now, I don't want to become anymore attached to you then I already am," Wes informed her. "Are you going to regret this descion?" she asked him, as if saying that there were no chance for him to ever have anyone other then her. "No, I'm not." Wes knew that he still lacked the self esteem that he should have taken from that relationship, he also knew that he didn't want anything more to do with the once beautiful girlfriend that was standing before him. 

She started at him, studying his glossy brown eyes. She reached her hand up to play with his brown hair, he pulled her hand away. "Just leave me alone from now on. We're not a couple anymore. I'm not chained to you and I don't have to do what you want anymore. You've treated me like a dog through the whole relationship. You took avatange of my low self esteem, you lied to me, cheated on me, and now you want me to go through all of this again?" He walked forward, not wanting to ever look the girl in the face again. He knew her image would stay with him for as long as he lived, he just wished her could banish the image of her. 

She reached out for his arm, "I love you, Wes. You were the love of my life." "If that's the case, why was it necessary to cheat on me? Why? That's the only thing I really desire to hear come out of your mouth. I know you won't bother to explain it." He was right, she consider telling him, she was almost positve that he already knew. She'd never meant to cause Wes such pain, he was hurting as badly as she was. She couldn't explain to him why she did what she did to him. _I cheated on the only guy who's ever treated me like I was worth anything. I cheated on him and broke both our hearts for my own selfish reason. I can't explain this to him, I can't explain that I just cheated on him for the attention, _she thought to herself as she watched Ryan and Riley approach. 

Amy had never thought of herself as a beautiful person, she had always been told that she was ugly. She was the type of person who would have given anything to wake up one morning and not look disgusting. Over time she had gotten her wish, along with lots of male attention. She wasn't sure how to react to the attention, she just knew that she enjoyed it. She had to keep their attention, she'd give anything for it. She had been drawn to Wes because he hadn't treated her like she's been treated by the others. He made her feel somewhat important, she felt that she had a reason for living. 

She hadn't meant to cheat on Wes, she had just become addicted to the attention that she had been receiving. Now she stood before her, pregnant and starting to show. She'd lost the only person in the world that cared for her. He was the only person she'd ever cared for. "I wish I could take it all back, I wish I could change what I've done," she told Wes. He paid no attention to her words as he continued to walk forward, not caring that they were being called out to and approached. 

Wes refused to even adknowledge Amy anymore. She stated to jog towards him, knowing that she shouldn't because she was pregnant. She just wanted to get the attention of the only person she thought mattered. She felt someone grab her arm, she turned and saw her coworker, Riley, standing behind her. "What the fuck do you want, Riley?" She had never been a kind person so he expected her to react that way. 

"Look, just let us talk to you. Maybe you should come with us to meet this guy we talked to yesterday. It's really important that both of you come with us," Riley said, meeting her eyes. "It's about all that cheat death bull-," Riley interrupted her. "It doesn't matter if you believe us, you just have to come with us, just give us a few minutes of your time. I promise this will be worth it." "How the fuck do I know that you're not just going to kill me yourself? How do I know? It seems that every time there's a death you and your friends are always there." She eyed him as if he were worthless to her. 

Ryan was at Wes's side, having a similar conversation with him. Wes suddenly raised his voice loud enough for Riley and Amy to hear him, "Look, if death wants me it can have me. It's not like I haven't had everything taken away to began with. I've had everything I have ever cared about ripped away from me. The woman I love betrayed me. I honestly don't care if I live or die." 

Amy tryed to rush towards her ex boyfriend but Riley gently restrained her. "Please, it's important." She tried to shake his grip off of her, he wasn't going to let her die in front of him as the others had. She noticed the desperate look in his eyes as he gripped her arm, almost as if he were scared to die himself. She thought that Ryan must be filling Riley's head with garbage, she never really liked Riley in the first place. 

"Look, if you don't get your hands off of me I'm going to kill you myself," she told him. He released her, against his will. She started to walk off as he watched a basket roll across the parking lot. He listened to the parking lot fill with the sound of wheels on the cement. Riley thought that something was out of place as he heard thunder explode across the darkened sky. He frowned as a cold wind picked up, it was as if the weather were taunting him. 

Riley heard the sound of a car starting, he felt unmotivated to remove his eyes from the pregant girl standing before him. He heard the car began to drive off and thought in the back of his mind that he should look back at the car. He considered that for a moment, thinking that if he looked away for even a second it would be death's chance to claim the girl standing before him. The radio of the car blasted into the parking lot, filling Riley's ears with the familiar notes of a song he knew too well, the same song he had heard the day before... 

He looked behind him, releasing the female from his grip. She started to walk away when Riley saw what was unfolding before his eyes. The car served to avoid hitting a basket that the wind was blowing towards the car. The driver ended up hitting another basket with so much force that it hurtled towards Amy. She had no time to react as the basket impailed her, diving her body through the gates of the metal basket. Amy's mouth opened and blood poured out, her teeth were stained red from her blood. She blinked as her body become a bloody mess of blood and what used to be organs. 

The blood and organs landed into the basket as if they were groceries. They made a sickening sound as they hit the metal. Riley could smell the metalic smell of blood and an unfamiliar smell that he thought must be her fluid from her organs. It disgusted him to see a human body destoryed before his eyes. The top half of her body fell into the basket, as though death though she were an unimportant afterthought thrown into the basket at the last second. Her face was splashed with blood, she didn't die at first, she blinked a final time with her face full of pain. She reached out to Wes, but died just before he took her hand. Her hand was soaked with her own blood. Riley finally managed to take his eyes away from his dead co worker. "Is this all our fates? Are we all going to end up violently killed by a force we can't even see?" The question hung in the air unanswered. 


	13. Chapter 13

Ryan cringed at the sight of the girl who had just died before him. Her death had been the most violent that he had seen up to this point. He wasn't prepared for what had just happened and he said a slient prayer that he would be able to help the others. He wasn't ready to see the others the way he was viewing Amy Kain. He wondered for a second what death had planned out for him and wheather he would look like the mess of blood and organs sitting in front of him when death got done with him.

He tore his eyes away and looked upon the face of Wes, who was in tears. He seemed almost hypniosed by the sight he was forced to behold. Wes's face had turned red and he refused to be pulled away from the girl that he had just broken up with. Riley tried to remove him from the girl, he refused to move even an inch. He shoved Riley away, he was angry. He held a blank look in his troubled eyes. Ryan felt sympathy towards the man he had just seen lose someone he cared very deeply for. Ryan wished there was anything he could do to change all of their fates, knowing there wasn't.

Ryan thought of what had just happened and what had been happening since he had his premontion. He looked down at his shoes and allowed a few tears to fall. "Hey, man, we have to help Wes," Riley said. Ryan looked up at his friend, knowing he must have felt the same emotion that was flowing through Ryan. "I know, I don't think the boy wants our help. How can we help him if we can't even help ourselves? Is it just hopeless to try?" Riley didn't answer, his face held a determinded look, as if he had just gotten a surge of newfound courage. "I think we can, I think maybe we can help these people."

Riley eyes held a strange combination of emotions, he looked away from Ryan. What he had seen that night was far worse then anything he had ever seen in his entire life. Riley got a feeling that they had angered death, he figured that if they had angered death they could somehow defeat death. "I'm not going to give up on stopping death. Ry, I know you feel the same way as I do, I know you're not going to give up. I've never felt this way before, I have hope that we can save some of these people." Ryan admired what he was seeing in Riley.

"Wes, we need to talk. I know this is a bad time, but if we don't talk right now there may not be another chance," Ryan said, approaching Wes. Wes was holding the hand of his dead ex girlfriend and feeling guilty about their conversation seconds before she died. He never even took his eyes away from the girl as he responded to them, "What could we possibly have to talk about at a time like this?" He spoke with an angry tone, unlike the one that they were used to hearing from Wes. "Ryan, you caused this, didn't you? You caused it with your magical powers." Wes was no longer completely sane.

"Wes, you're in danger, if you don't listen to what we have to say you're going to end up dying," Ryan informed him, knowing he'd opened himself up to more of Wes's fury. "If it wasn't for you she'd still be alive. If you'd have just left us alone after you had your stupid premotion. Sure, you saved our lives one time, but you just took the life that meant the most to me. You just took away one of the only people I would die for. Why did you have to bother us? Why couldn't you have just let us live?"

"If we would have done that then you would have died. Did you want to lose your life too?" Ryan asked him, looking directly into his eyes. Wes's eyes were rimmed with red, he looked at Ryan a look of pure haterd across his face. "It doesn't matter, nothing matters to me anymore." He turned away and started to walk away. He played with his cell phone, eyes on the cell phone the entire time.

The driver that had hit the basket stopped their car and got out of it. The driver was a woman in her early thrities, she wore a white sundress with a flower pattern. She had dirty blonde hair and green eyes. She was not a very pretty woman, but she appeared to be friendly. She felt horrible about what had just happened. She ran towards the accident, she was horrified to see the dead female. She knew that whatever she said to the three men standing near the dead female wouldn't make up for the lost they had just suffered. It wouldn't make up for the dead body they could clearly see before them. It wouldn't take away the image of the dead female everytime they closed their eyes.

"Is she dead?" asked the driver, it wasn't the best choice of words. "Yes, she is," Ryan repiled to her, barely even glancing at her. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I know there's nothing I can do to take this back-" Ryan interupted her, "It's not your fault. It was just her time to go. She was next on death's list. Even if you wouldn't have been here she would have died some way." Ryan paused to point to Wes, "You see that boy, he's next." The woman suddenly realized that the man speaking to her was probably disturbed by what he had just seen.

Fear traveled down her spine as she considered what Ryan had told her. She knew there wasn't any way for him to be able to see the future. "Are you two her brothers?" she asked them, hoping for a quick reply. They both just shook their heads, staring at the ground as if they were in a daze. She approached the other boy, the one that seemed to be walking away. He was still playing with his cell phone, as if he were deciding who he should call.

"Sir, sir! I need to talk to you, please stop," she ran to him. "You see that mess of blood and human organs sitting in that shopping cart over there," he pointed, "That used to be my girlfriend, she was my true love. I broke up with her a few minutes before she died. I loved her, she was pregant for someone else. I guess I shouldn't have let that bother me. I see how permant death is and I wish my last words to her would have been different. Maybe you will consider that when you have a problem like mine." He wasn't making much sense either, but the driver felt guilty upon hearing that his girlfriend had just died.

"I'm sorry for your lost, I'm sorry for my part in your lost. I know I can't do anything to take it back. I would trade places with this girl if I could, I'm sorry for your lost." Wes turned to look at her, she saw for the first time the red of his eyes. He looked at her with a look of pure haterd, "What was your part in her death?" he asked her. "I hit the basket that killed your girlfriend," she soon regretted telling him. Wes put a single hand around her thoart, he began to sqeeze, it sent pain throughout the body of the woman.

She wanted him to stop, she was defenseless againest him. She didn't want him to end her life. She thought of her children and husband, she didn't want to leave them. Suddenly a hand pulled Wes's hands away. Riley had pulled Wes's hand away as Ryan attempted to calm him down. Wes lunged towards Riley, nearly knocking him onto the ground. The action sent Riley into a rage, he punched Wes straight in the face. "Look, I'm not looking for trouble, you don't need to start shit with me right now. Your girlfriend just died, you need to calm down. Do you want to be next?" Riley asked him, managing to calm himself a small bit. "I don't give a fuck who's next. We'll all going to die. It's better we get it overwith soon so we don't have to live miserable lives filled with nothing but abuse and disappointment," Wes masked his pain with the anger in his voice.

"It doesn't have to be that way. You'll find another girlfriend. I didn't really know much about you to began with, if your life was horrible I'm sure you can make changes to it," Ryan said. "It's not that simple!" Wes screamed, walking backwards into the street. He didn't pay any attention to anything going on around him. He was pained with grief. Nothing mattered to him anymore, if death didn't phyically kill him, it had mentally killed him.

Wes thought that everyone suffered many deaths before their phyical death. The death of a friendship, a relationship, a carrer, a death of anything that meant something to the person. He supposed that was why so many people were depressed. Wes felt the same as him, phically he felt like millions of tiny needles were slicing through his body. Mentally he felt as though there were no more reason to live. His face felt sore from crying, he didn't think the tears would ever stop rolling down his cheeks.

Ryan caught a glimse of a dark force rolling across the mental surface of the shopping cart that had ended Amy's life. The dark force seemed to move towards a parked, black SUV. He watched as the dark force appeared again in the passanger's side mirror. A cold burst of air erupted into the parking lot, sending an involuntary shiver down Ryan's spine. He knew that another death was coming.

Ryan turned his face away to search for all the possible causes of death. Ryan's eyes darted around nervously in his head as Riley looked at him with a genuine look of conern. Ryan's eyes found many ways to die but rested on the black SUV that was parked so closey to them. He studied his refelction in it, wondering why death had chosen him to taunt.

"You okay?" Riley asked, nudging him to gain his attention. "It's close," was the simple response that Ryan gave, only Riley showed signs of understanding. The blonde woman cleared her thoart and started to walk towards her car, just as the SUV started. The woman paid no attention to the SUV, she just wanted to get away from what she considered to be the brain dead youth of America. He searched her purse for her keys as she heard a vechile following her.

She turned to see the black SUV behind her, it didn't contain a driver. She looked over at the group of young men, noticing Ryan staring at what was unfolding before him. The black SUV seemed to give a warning growl, hissing at her. She started to run towards her car, the SUV was only inches from the woman. As she ran she removed her high heel shoes, leaving them on the ground.

Suddenly another human threw theirself towards her, knocking her out of the patch of the approaching SUV. She landed safely in the shopping cart return station. "Are you alright?" Ryan asked her. The person she had just thought poorly of had just saved her life. She coughed, not sure if it was from all her years of smoking or if it was from the fall to the ground taking her breath away.

She coughed once more before answering, "I'm fine...I'm fine." She was visibly upset by what had just happened to her. She felt a bit dizzy as she stood up. "Thank you for saving my life, although I don't think I deserve it." Ryan frowned as the words left her mouth. "Everyone deserves a chance at a full life, that includes you," he informed her, creeping her out as he did so.

The SUV's tires squeked as they changed direction. They hit the pair of high heels that the woman had taken off. The center of the heels twisted, causing a single heel to fly through the air. It flew torwards Wes, it ended up impiling him in the thoart. Wes choked as blood dripped from his open wound. He reached out his hand as his eyes started to go blank. His face was free of expression as he fell on the cement parking lot. The high heel stuck out of his neck as he lay on the ground completely flat.

He was motionless as a small group of people started walking from the store towards him. They asked if there was anything they could do to help and how it had happened. Ryan wasn't interested in answering questions, nor was Riley. The two tried to escape the small crowd. The woman with blonde hair considered what had just happened and the words that Ryan had spoken eariler. She shivered and wondered if she had been saved by someone who could see the future, or prehaps someone who had crused his friends.

The two men walked off, leaving the crowd to stare at their backs. A young brunette approached them. Her face was full of unanswerable questions. Her eyes seemed unbelievly troubled, as if she had gone through the same thing they had. She was simply dressed in a light blue hoodie and jeans. "My name is Kimberly and I was wondering if I could help? I know there's not much I can do, if there's anything-" Ryan interupted her, "There's nothing you can do. Nothing anyone can ever do to help us. Everyone will die someday, how can you stop yourself from dying? Perhaps it would be more of a curse to live forever then it would be to die young. At least you wouldn't have to see all this suffering and watch as your friends die before you. Death is like a cruel game, using us as its pawns."

A gust of wind picked up around the parking lot. Kimberly's hair tangled wildly around her face. She held a look of understanding. She started to depart towards the group. She turned to have one last look at Riley and Ryan. Ryan's eyes were on something behind Kimberly. The basket that Amy Kain's body had come to a rest on the back of was starting to move across the parking lot. As the cart rolled Amy's lifeless body bounced. The cart rolled until it crashed violently into the black SUV, Amy's body sinking deeper into the basket. It was as if death was telling Ryan there was not a shred of hope left for him and his doomed friends.


	14. Chapter 14

Ryan and Riley walked in silence to Janie's house, knowing that Jeremy would be there also. The two friends held the same troubled thoughts as they walked towards Janie's house. Riley feared the thought that he would be the next to share the fate of the others. He frowned as he walked through a pile of dead leaves in the woods behind Janie's house. He didn't want to admit it but he was secertly afraid of dying.

His thoughts varied between different stages of being confused and insane. He wasn't sure of if he had gone insane but if he hadn't he was sure that he was borderline of becoming insane. He knew that the life he was living, in fear of death, was the only reality for him. He silently wished that somehow he could go back to his old life. He wondered if there was any way he would be able to return to his old way of life. He quickly banished the thought, knowing there was no possible way he would be able to return to what he used to be, he was forever changed.

"I wonder how I'll die," he said softly, Ryan had trouble hearing him. "What?" he asked him. "I wonder how I'm going to die. Everyone died in such different ways, it's impossible to tell what to look for when you don't know how you're going to die. I mean, I see little ionic things but I don't put the pieces together. I don't know how I'm going to die and I don't know what it's going to feel like. Why can't I just die in my sleep when I'm old. At first death didn't bother me, now it's in my face doing nothing but bothering me."

Riley's words had plunged through Ryan like a knife. Riley seemed to be thinking quite a bit about his death. Ryan thought that if he were next it would possibly be the same way. "Riley, we're going to talk to Bludworth, he might hold the answer. I just wish he would stop giving us the answer in a riddle," Ryan looked uncomfortable. "If I lose you or any of them it'll be more painful then it was to lose the others. I've gotten closer to the three of you then I have ever gotten to anyone in my entire life," he hoped Riley wouldn't think the wrong thoughts.

"I understand, we're like a family now. Brought together by something meant to tear us to pieces." Ryan sighed a small sigh of refleif that his friend understood. "Maybe that's what was meant to happen. Maybe we were all meant to influence each other's lives. Maybe that's why death tried to claim us. We were lacking that part of our lives," Ryan mumbled on as Riley shook his head in disarguement. "Janie and I were friends before, the only thing that's been thrown into the picture is you and Jeremy."

Riley had to come to terms with the fact that he was next on death's list. As much as he wanted to live his life the way he wanted to, he also wanted to stick around to make sure Janie survived. He was lost in his thoughts as they started up the stairs that led to the back doorway. He was unsure of whether he should attempt to cheat death or not. "Ry, can I ask you a favor?"

Ryan looked a little confused as they stood on the stairs together. "I guess so," he said, not knowing what Riley could possibly want. "If I die, could you make sure that Janie is safe?" Riley eyes appeared innocent and afraid. "Yes, I will try my best to save her," he said. "There's another thing, you see, I'm a writer and I've been writing this story ever since I met Janie. It's in my desk, in a drawer near my computer. It's in a little compiston book. If I don't get a chance to give it to her I want you to give it to her." He held out an extra key to Ryan. Ryan nodded in argeement as he took the key.

"What's the story about?" he asked Riley. "I started writing it after I met Janie, it was meant for her. It'll help her to know what I'm feeling and was feeling. It's something I think only she can understand and only she can finish writing it for me. I need her to have it," he pleaded with his eyes and Ryan knew that he must give the book to the girl.

They conuited to walk up the stairs together, in silence. As they reached the top they noticed a thin line of blood at the bottom of the doorway. "Hey, you see that?" Riley asked, pointing to the blood. Both of them started to pound viciously at the door, needing desperatly to know what the blood was from. Janie pulled the door open, Riley hugged her to his body.

"What's that blood from?" Ryan asked, pointing to the blood on the ground. "Is Jeremy alright?" "Jeremy's fine, something bad happened," Janie said, looking depressed at the thought of the words that were about to leave her mouth. "I had a puppy, a pug, a little dog," she paused, she was in tears, "death took my dog. It's taunting us. I just watched my puppy die a few minutes ago." She let Riley hold her, Jeremy walked up from behind her. "We need to see Bludworth. Does this mean that none of us even have a chance at living?" Jeremy asked the group.

Ryan looked down and stopped the dead dog near the doorway. He wore a collar that said "Mr. Puggles", Ryan thought that must have been the dog's name. The dog was simply stabbed in the back with a butcher knife. Ryan wondered if Jeremy had done that to the dog. He frowned at the thought of that, he didn't want his friend to have a dangerous boyfriend.

"Let's just go see Bludworth. We need to put death behind us and move on with our lives," Ryan told the group. The group didn't move an inch. "Ryan, I hate to break it to you but no matter what we're still going to be forever changed by this event." The look on Riley's face was a serious look, one that Riley would never have worn before. He seemed to be a slight bit different then he had been before Ryan's premotion. He seemed more serious, yet some things remained unchanged. Riley was still the rebelous man he always would be.

Riley was never afraid to speak his mind, he soon wished he hadn't when he saw the faces around him fall, realizing he was right. None of them had needed to hear the truth at that moment. What they all needed to hear was that everything would be alright and that they weren't going to die. Riley knew it wouldn't be right to have lied to them. He just wished that for once he had kept his mouth shut. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, it's okay, we were all thinking it anyway. You're right. I'd rather have you tell me the doomed truth than for you to lie to me and tell me everything's sunny and happy in our future," Ryan said. They all started slowly to the car, Janie stopped. "Honey, are you alright?" Jeremy asked, walking towards her. He didn't want her to dwell on the dead dog.

She looked down at that remains of her puppy. She started to cry. "Jeremy, remember when I said I had a bad dream last night?" He nodded in reply. "Well, I had this dream that there was this man, his head was shaved and he was sitting in this old wooden stand outside. He was selling records, he had mordern artists. In the dream I bought a record but I didn't have a record player. I only had a cd player. He was in the middle of this desert town, I went to bring the record back to ask for a cd to replace it." She paused to catch her breath.

Jeremy got the feeling her dream was about to turn for the worst. "Where are you trying to go with all this?" He asked, he was corcerned for his girlfriend. He hated seeing anything upset her. She was easily upset by the small things, he wanted to help her through her dream. Prehaps it even held some type of message. "I returned to the stand, the stand was covered with covers of albums from records. The man with the shaved head sat at his stand, he seemed to have grown older. The stubble on his head was gray instead of blonde, his face had wrinkles. He had been young before."

Jeremy considered what he dream could possibly mean. "I asked him if I could have a cd or my money back. I handed him the record and he appected it. He pulled the records out. Instead of being a record it was a round saw. The sky around me was gray, as if it were preparing for a rainstorm. Someone else was at the stand, trying to buy stuff. He threw the saw at the other customer. He was going to throw it at me also. I woke up with the horrible realiztion that he had just killed someone. The saw had sliced through their neck..." She left the details to Jeremy's imagantion.

"I think you should better describe the man," he said, thinking the man might be some type of danger that Janie was being warned about. "Well, at first the man was young, about twenty-three. He was a kind man with short blonde hair and he seemed to have a few tattoos. I think they were tribal markings, I'm not sure. He wore an orange, shelevless vest. When I came back to return my purcuse he was no longer a young kind man. He looked the same, he had just aged. He was haggard, he held an evil look in his eyes."

"Janie, I had a bad dream last night too. I dreamed that I had just moved into this new neighborhood and there was this black cat. I think it was a stray. It tried to attack me and I went inside my trailer to watch television. The tv set was surrounded by posters from old punk rock bands that hung on the walls around me. Everything seemed to have a red and pink glow to it. I realized that I had forgotten something outside that I needed. I would have to go outside and face the cat. I was suddenly outside and I think what I wanted was a newspaper." Jeremy paused as he caught his breath so that he could move on with his story.

He looked as if he were about to get to the horrible part very quickly. "I bent down to grab the newspaper and the cat was clawing at my eyebrows. I remember that in my dream I thought that the cat was going to go for my eyes. I didn't want my eyes ripped out by the cat so I pulled out a gun and shot the cat in it's eye. I don't know where the gun had come from. The cat wasn't dead and it was about to make another attempt to hurt me. I shot it in it's other eye and it laid dead on the street. I went back inside my trailer, leaving the newspaper and went to watch tv. I remember waking up with the thought that I had killed a black cat so that meant that I had bad luck."

Jeremy didn't believe in luck, he had dismissed the dream. "What if my dream meant that we should look in the newspaper and avoid certain things. Maybe it even has something we're supposed to be at to save our lives. You think we should get one on the way to see Bludworth?" Jeremy said. "Maybe we should, maybe we shouldn't. Wes and Amy died a few minutes ago. They died before our eyes. It means that I'm next, every step I take is a step that might seal my fate," Riley said.

Jeremy and Janie had no idea that Riley and Ryan had witnessed the fate of two more survoirs. Janie started to cry once again, she couldn't believe that more lives had ended. "I don't want you to be next, I don't want any of us to have to be next," Janie said, looking into the face of a friend that had gotten her through the hardest times of her life. "I love all of you, you've become family to me. I can't believe we're just going to die. I can't believe it's going to be over." She looked around at the faces of the people standing near her. Their faces held the same expression as hers.

They all started to walk towards the yard where Janie's car was parked. "You going to be alright to drive?" Jeremy asked her. "Yes, I'll be fine," she said, wiping away tears that formed on her face. She walked to the driver's side of the car and opened the door, falling into the car. She suddenly realized that she had saved up for that car for about a year and now she'd barely gotten to use it. _I could have donated that money, I could have done something better than this with my money. I wasted so much of my life saving for a car. _She gripped the stearing wheel so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

Jeremy was in the seat next to hers, watching her. He put his hands over hers. "I hope whatever Bludworth can tell us this time is good news," Jeremy said, calming his destressed girlfriend a small bit. She gave him a small, hopeful smile as she inserted the key and waited for the car to warm up. She ajusted the rear view mirror and caught a glimse of Riley. She felt a surge of mixed emotions towards him. Must of her emotions towards him were feelings of joy, a few feelings of dread towards what might happen to him.

_It must be tearing him apart to know that he's next on death's list. _She thought of how their families would react to their deaths. Before she had fallen asleep the night before Jeremy and Janie had stayed up, writing letters to their loved ones. Letters their loved ones needed to see. A last chance to express their love. It wouldn't ease their loved ones pain but there were a lot of things Jeremy and Janie had left to say to those they loved.

Janie stared blankly at the dashboard. "Jeremy, what if only one of us lives? What if you live and I die? What if I live and you die? How will we handle it?" "I guess we'll see when that happens, if that happens. Hopefully everyone in this car will live," Jeremy told her. They heard police sirens nearby, assuming the police were coming to question the two boys, Janie put the car into gear and started to drive away.


	15. Chapter 15

They rode in silence down the familiar streets, past familiar sights. Sights they were taking in, it was as if it were the first time they were seeing the sights. The same thoughts creeping through their minds, _ This might be the last time I get to see this view. _Each of them taking the time to reflect on how quickly the deaths of coworkers had occurred. Each reflecting on how quickly a human life could be stolen away and pushed aside like an afterthought. Each reflecting on how lives could be changed and torn apart by a death. It all seemed very unfair to the young group, sitting silently in the car, driving past sights they may never have the chance to view again.

The sky was darkened, Janie watched the headlights beam to light the scencary. None of them paid attention to nature before, but as they rode in silence they took in every sight. Jeremy finally could not stand the silence any longer and turned the radio on. The loud of a guitar errupted throughout the car, causing everyone to turn their attention away from the outside world. Jeremy looked embrassed, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't stand the silence any longer." Janie gave him a syphathic nod, knowing he was about to speak his mind.

"I wonder if it's going to hurt when I die," he started. It was a question that he had been asking himself over and over for days. "I don't know, Jeremy," Ryan said, more than a small bit annoyed. Janie frowned at the way Ryan responded. She placed her hand on his arm, "Jeremy, you might not even die. You might live, we might both live." Hope sparked in her voice, it gave Jeremy a small bit of relief. He gave a small smile to his girlfriend as she concerated on the road. The radio station started to play Bush's "Little Things", a song that both Jeremy and Janie loved but Jeremy reached over and turned it off.

"The last thing I want to do is to listen to a song about death with these thoughts on my mind," he smiled at Janie. "I'm sure it'll be different someday. Someday we won't think about death and someday everything will be fine. Hopefully everything will be fine for all of us in this car," she looked around at the others. Riley was sluching down and looking out the window, his face full of clouded thoughts. His hair curling just above his eye, making his face hard to see. Ryan's face held no expression as he looked forward. He met Janie's eyes for a moment, she returned her attention to the road.

Something about Ryan's clamness bothered Janie. She thought that he should be more upset then he was after seeing so many deaths. She dismissed her thoughts, knowing that he must be keeping his thoughts inside. She had her own personal worries to keep her mind occupied. Her knuckles where white from gripping the stearing wheel too tightly. Her eyes were wide with panic. She frowned at her knuckles.

Ryan was in the backseat, staring out of the window. He was completely lost in his thoughts. He felt completely miserable, he felt like a failure. He barely spoke to anyone in the car for the entire ride. He wondered if anything would change if he would survive. He doubted that, he knew he would die someday and wondered if it would be better to die at that time. He didn't have many people in his life that cared about him. He didn't really have anything in his life that he thought was worth living for.

He wondered why he was even bothering. The only reason he had left to live was to protect the lives of the people in the car with him. He hadn't even managed to intervern and get death to skip anyone for even a short amount of time. His hands were linked together in his lap as he gazed at the sights surrounding him. He managed to cause himself more misery by staring blankly out the window. It seemed as if a dark figure were lurking through the trees, like a serial killer searching for his next vitcum.

Ryan's face was drained from lack of sleep. He felt alone among his friends sitting in the car with him. His eyes were only halfway open. He thought that he must look horrible. Ryan thought briefly about his short life. He felt like he was only known for failure. There were things Ryan wanted to complete before his death. He hoped that he would get the chance before he died. He prayed to somehow get a second chance to live a life without death following him around.

He doubted he'd get that. He looked next to him for a moment, shooting a sad glance in Riley's direction. Riley was too lost in his own thoughts to even notice Ryan's attention. Riley had barely noticed being singled out by his friends in the car. "I'm scared," he said more to himself than to the people sitting in the car with him. His confession was more of an understatement. The other people in the car took a moment before responding. "I'm scared too, we're all scared," Janie said, without taking her eyes off of the road.

"Are we almost there yet?" Ryan asked, rudely. It was as if he were annoyed with the people among him. No one bothered to respond to him. No one bothered to pay much attention to his mood. Riley didn't pay much attention to anything other than the thoughts in his own mind. He thought about his life and his soon approaching death. "I wonder what plan death has for me. It seems that death is so vicious, so ruthless, so evil. Why would it take a life in that way? Why would it cause so much pain? Why not just let them all have painless deaths? I don't want my life to end with me being some nobody who works at a fast food place. I haven't accopmlished anything in my life yet."

As the words left his mouth he realized how much he had left in his life to do. Riley had always dreamed of being a musicain, he'd done a few demos and he was pretty good. He'd never get the chance to fulfill his dream. Janie wanted to go to college, she planned to be something important. She wanted to help people, she didn't want to work at a place like they worked either. "You know, if we live, the first thing I plan to do is quit my job," Riley said. Janie's face broke into a smile, it had been so long since the young girl had smiled.

"Me too," she said softly. She smiled and looked in the rear view mirror at Riley. "Remember the time when you were so angry about something and you wanted to quit and I talked you out of it?" she asked him. It was a fond memory to the both of them. They had long forgotten what Riley was angry about, they just remembered that it had built their friendship. She had so many fond memories of Riley, she didn't want to lose him.

Ryan's thoughts held confusion, he wished he knew why he had the vision. He wished he knew if he had somehow caused the vision. It was something he'd have to ask Bludworth. He wondered if he had caused the people from his vision to die. He wondered if he were to blame for everything that had been happening. A tear formed in his eye as he thought about all the lost lives. Not only had he allowed the people he'd saved to die, he allowed the people he couldn't save to die. He looked around the car. All the people in the car with him looked like they should be modeling, but they were all marked for death instead. Their faces were beautiful and young, but now held worried looks.

It was Ryan's fault they held worried looks. He wondered what it would have been like if he hadn't saved a single person, not even himself. He wondered if anyone would have cared. They would have all just been nothing more than names on a plaque, just like Alex Browning and his friends were supposed to be. His vision was a curse, he wondered if the curse ran in the family. He wondered if his family would even care if he were killed in the Best Burger accident.

Ryan's thoughts were very troubled, no one in the car seemed to notice. Would he have even noticed any of their attention anyway? He was struck with a wave of sadness as a vision of his dead cousin's face floated into his mind. He missed Alex so much that he couldn't bare it. He wondered what advise his cousin would have had for him. He wondered what myseries of death Alex had figured out.

"I miss him," Ryan said, without even realizing that the words had left his mouth. "Who?" Riley asked him. "Alex, I wonder what Alex would say to us if he saw what we were going through. I wonder if Alex is watching over us," Ryan said, he was distracted. He glanced up at the stars and wondered if Alex was one of those stars, somehow watching him. His eyes glistened with fresh tears, he wished Alex didn't have to die.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, he glanced up to see Riley staring at him. A worried expression on Riley's face. He realized how much they all had to lose. He realized that the man sitting next to him in the car was the next in line to die. He was next on death's list but trying to ease Ryan's unhappy feelings. "What if I can't do it? What if I can't save any of us? What if we're all doomed?"

"I guess it wouldn't matter, we wouldn't be around to know about it," Riley said. Riley soon realized that he shouldn't have expressed his thoughts. Ryan lowered his head and sobbed. Riley patted his back, trying to ease the pain that he had just inflicted on Ryan. "If it's meant to be it's going to happen," Riley told him. "We were all meant to die and we're sitting in this car. We're breathing this air that we were never meant to breathe. We're doing things that weren't meant to be done. Does that mean that you can change your fate?" Ryan asked. He already knew that no one in the car had an answer for him.

Ryan couldn't wait for the car to pull into the parking lot of the morgue. He couldn't wait to run out of the car and into the morgue. He couldn't wait to ask Bludworth all the questions that were floating around his brain. He couldn't wait to hear Bludworth's answers to the questions that were floating around in his mind. He wondered what explaination Bludworth could possibly have for the events unfolding before them.

Ryan had been unsure of every moment of his life since his premoision. He was even unsure of the simple things that he had been so sure of in the past. He felt as if he didn't know himself anymore. He felt as if he didn't know anything anymore. He felt like an insignagant speck that could be brushed away at any given time. He had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He felt alone, as if each of his friends would be plucked away from him before his eyes and he couldn't change it. He felt isolated from the world.

He felt miserable, as if he had just lost his best friend. He knew that he had a great chance of losing everyone in the car. He felt as if he were bleeding from an open wound with no chance of saving himself. He was deeply saddened by the events in his new life. His new life gave him no hope of going back to his old life. His old ways and his false friends. He decided that he wouldn't miss his old life anyway, it was the path of an empty shell. He felt as if he were an empty shell, watching things happen and not being able to stop them from happening.

Ryan wished that he could just brush away his feelings, like he had done many times in the past. Prehaps that was his problem, prehaps he ignored his problems. In his past he had simply ignored his feelings and problems. He couldn't ignore the depression he felt. The only thing in his life that he desired was to end his depression. "You know, we should be treasuring every second that we're alive. All I can think about is my upcoming death and your upcoming deaths," Ryan mumbled bitterly.

"They say that when you die you experience everything you've ever experienced over again. That means every happy feeling, every depressed feeling, every angry feeling, any feeling you've ever felt will return to you. I'm not sure that I want all of my old feelings returning. I mean, look at the depressions that you sometimes get that you can't fight. Look at the times you get angry at your family over stupid things and then feel guilty about it. Life is far from a Hollywood movie where everyone is happy and you end up marrying your next door neighbor," Riley said, he had been through many depressions in his short lifetime.

Riley looked down and felt someone's hand on his shoulder, he assumed it was Ryan. "I'm next, I don't think there's anything we can do to stop that." He felt looks of concern upon him. "We're going to do anything we can do to save you. You and the other people in this car are the only reason I have left to live. My life was empty before I met all of you. I'm glad that our paths crossed, although I wish it were under better circumstances. I wish we had all met a little bit sooner. You people are the only people that matter to me anymore," Ryan said, it was an atempt to ease everyone's feelings.

Ryan had managed to send himself into another depression as he realized that in the past his life had only been about getting high and drunk. His life was nothing more than a sad excuse for a life. He had found the only thing in his life that truly mattered to him, the people sitting amongst him in the car. "I've wasted my entire life trying to be something that I'm not. What's worse is that it was something that never mattered in the first place and I wish that I had never attempted to be something I'm not," Ryan sat saddly with his head down and his hand on Riley's shoulder.

"I'm sure we've all tried to be something we're not at one point in our life or another. Hopefully you get a chance to be whatever it is you really want to be. Maybe that's why we're dying, we were all something we weren't supposed to be. We were all posers, looking for a purpose in our lives and didn't find one until it was too late. Maybe there's still a chance that we'll be able to escape our fate," Riley said, pretending to be brave at a time when he was far from brave.

They all went slient as they looked upon the approaching morgue. The place they felt they could find all of their answers. The place where all the dead bodies of their friends had been sent. Janie pulled into the parking lot and put her car into park. The car was silent. They all remained still for a moment. "I guess the only way to know if he has our answers is to get this overwith," Jeremy said, breaking the slience. He unbuckled himself and stepped out of the car. The other followed behind him, pausing to look at the gloomy building.


	16. Chapter 16

As they walked towards the morgue, not a single one of them was more on edge then Riley. He felt that the morgue held his fate, his future depended on the morgue. He may soon be one of the bodies laying in the morgue. He may soon be nothing more than a blood spattlered mess somewhere. His thoughts were dark as he dragged himself into the morgue. His legs felt as heavy as lead as he wondered if his dead body would soon be laying in the cold morgue. 

His eyes were darkened and his face held a cold expression. His black eyebrows were in an angry expression, nearly hidden under his hair. His eyes never moved away from the sights ahead of him. His face was cold to the world around him. Part of him dreaded entering the morgue, the other part of him held excitement for the answers the morgue might hold. He had never felt the emotions he was feeling in his entire life. 

They all felt the rush of cold air as the door to the morgue was opened by Riley. He turned back for a moment to look at all of them as they jumped back in shock at the cold air brushing their skin. They all were shocked to see the twisted look of haterd that had crossed Riley's face. Janie had never seen him hold an expression like the one that crossed his face. She wondered what he had going on with his emotions. She wondered what she would feel like when she knew that her death was just around the corner. As much as she hated admitting it, she was relieved that she wasn't next on death's list. It was a horrible thing for her to think, it was the truth and she couldn't deny it. 

She hated the thought of her friend dying, she also hated herself for being relieved that she was not next on death's list. She had a heavy feeling of dread towards losing her friend. It was the same feeling she got whenever she knew she would never see someone again. She was horrible at saying goodbyes so she often avoided them. She regretted doing so on more than one occusion. She knew that she had to tell Riley goodbye, or at least let him know that she cared about him. She hadn't done so in the past. 

She felt sick in the pit of her stomach, knowing she may lose her best friend at anytime. She knew that she should never in her entire life have to deal with the emotions that she was feeling. She knew that she should never feel like she was going to lose him, but she did feel like she was about to lose him and it sickened her. She wished there were something she could do to prevent him from leaving her. She wished she could just reach out and hold him and make it all better. She knew that wasn't the case and she'd just have to deal with her feelings. She'd have those feelings for the rest of her life. 

Jeremy grabbed Janie's hand, distracting her from her thoughts for a moment. "You alright?" he asked her, searching for an answer in her eyes. "I guess so, you know, I'm losing my best friend." Her words stung him a bit. He wanted to be the only one she cared about and he thought she was having more serious feelings towards Riley then she cared to admit. "Janie, maybe we shouldn't be together anymore. Maybe we don't belong together," he said, aggravated with her feelings for Riley. 

"I can't lose you too, I can't lose you at this time. I need you. Jeremy, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. How can you just leave me?" she asked him, tears forming in her eyes. She wasn't sure if the tears were from the possible lost of Riley or the lost of her relationship. "I'm sorry," Jeremy said, holding her to his chest in a hug. "I'm not leaving you, I just thought you had more serious feelings for Riley then you wanted me to know about. I'm going to marry you," he said, trying to let her know it would all be alright. 

She felt a small bit better as they walked into the morgue together. This time they were surprised to see that there weren't any bodies on the table. Ryan guessed that he was done with the bodies of the police officers and waiting for the bodies of Amy and Wes. Bludworth was nowhere to be seen. "I wonder where Bludworth is?" Janie asked, growing impaint, along with the rest of them. 

None of them enjoyed being in the room with all the strange tools that surrounded them. It seemed to be taking Bludworth a long time for someone who always seemed to be one step ahead of them. They were all freezing as they looked around the room for any signs of life. Finally, they heard the sound of something hitting the floor and Bludworth emerged from wherever he had been. His face held a creepy smile as his eyes twinkled at them. 

"Hello, my friends, looking for answers?" Bludworth asked them, already aware of their answer. "You know what we're here for. Just tell us what we want to know and we'll be out of your way," Riley told him, angrilry. His mind had suddenly gone blank, he had no idea what questions he wanted to ask the man. "You're certain I hold the answers to your problem. Are you sure that you are not the problem?" he smiled down at Riley. Rage flooded through Riley. He grabbed Bludworth's shirt collar. 

Bludworth was a large, muscalr man, he could easily injure Riley if he would have liked to. The smile did not leave Bludworth's face as he looked into Riley's eyes. "Maybe the group of you being alive is only going to cause a large amount of damage," Riley finiched from the smell of the man's breath as he pulled Bludworth towards his face. His breath held the ordr of garlic and another rotten smell that Riley could not identify. "Why don't you just stop with all your riddles and explain to us why we where chosen for to die at this time, why are we marked for death when we've barely lived?" 

Bludworth sneared at Riley, taking a moment before answering. "By you and your friends staying alive you change death's design, flaw death's plan. Death is simply collecting what it failed to collect earlier." "If that's the truth then why did Ryan have a vision? Why were we able to cheat death?" Riley asked, eyes beating into Bludworth. Bludworth didn't flinch, he simply returned the stare. "Survial of the fittest, death was playing a game with all of you. You will all die, to put it simply, death is playing a creul game of human chess, using you for it's pawns." He smiled in Riley's face, pleased with himself. 

"Why where we chosen as death's pawns?" Riley asked. Bludworth simply smiled at the man that stood before him. Riley grew angry at the response of being ignored, Bludworth knew that he was making Riley angry and was enjoying himself. "I asked you a fucking question, are you going to answer me or not?" Riley demanded. "You each possess the ability to cheat death for a time. No living creature is immortal. Death simply wants to see how long you can last in it's creul game of chess. The prize being a chance to fully live your life, for a time, at least." 

He turned away from his visitors, making no movement to step away from them. A small smirk crossed his face. Riley, not caring how small he was next to the overpoweringly large man, walked towards Bludworth until he reached the point where he was facing him. "Look, all I want to know is if my friends and I have a chance at living. If you're going to play mind games with us then you can just fuck off because I am tired of your games!" Riley screamed into his face. 


	17. Chapter 17

Janie walked quietly along the empty, dark, street as rain pour down on her head. She couldn't sleep. She decided to see where her legs might lead her. Tears dripped down her face, mixed with the rain. Her entire life had fallen apart since the day Ryan had saved their lives, she wondered if it would have been better to have just died. Her soaked hoodie hung to her body, she looked up at the sky and let out a scream of frustation as more tears formed in her eyes.

Riley walked into his small one bedroom apartment, a bit shaken to be alone. He removed his jacket and hung it on the back of his computer chair before sitting down. He sighed and placed his head in his hands, not wanting to look up, not wanting to stare into the face of Freddy Kruger. He'd loved those violent movies so much, he'd collected everything he could from the movies. His collection included bobble heads, cardboard cutouts, action figures, and of course, a Freddy glove. Looking at his collection sickened him. He shook his head in disgust as he walked up to a bookshelf and angrily knocked down a few action figures.

He sat back in front of his computer and cried for a few minutes. He hadn't bothered to turn his light on so his apartment was dark, other then being briefly bathed by blue light from lighting near the windows. He heard a knock at his front door and at first thought it was only his imagination, until he heard it again. He stood and walked a few steps to the door, and opened it to fight a soaked Janie on the other side. He thought she looked more beautiful then she ever had before, with rain droplets in her hair, her black hoodie soaked and clinging to her, her eye make up smeared and nearly gone. She looked like an angel to his eyes.

"I wasn't expecting you, come in," he moved aside, motioning for her to enter his apartment. "I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk and ended up here, I guess I needed to talk to you, to know you were alive," she was freezing cold and dripping wet, she shivered. "You look beautiful," he said, without actually thinking. "I wish I felt beautiful. I don't know what's worse, dying without seeing it coming or knowing you're going to die and not really living anymore," she was only half lost in thought. She felt a small bit better after seeing Riley, hearing his voice, knowing he was still alive.

"The funny thing about all this is that I always thought that I would grow old and die in my sleep, not violently, not like this," she was fighting back tears. Riley understood how she felt, he felt the same way himself, "I always thought I'd have time to fix all my mistakes or at least learn from them." He noticed her shivering violently, he pulled her in for a kiss. She attempting to push him away, but in truth, she wanted the same thing as him.

When he pulled away from her his face held a smile. "If I'm going to die, at least you'll know how I truly felt about you. I love you with all that I have and I wish you were with me, but we can't always have what we want and I'm happy for you. If I die, I'll be watching over you." He held her and they both cried as they thought what would happen to them. She looked over his shoulder, at his horror movie collection.

She released him and walked over to the bookshelf. She ran her finger along the Freddy glove. "You really collect all this stuff?" she asked him. "I used to, but since everything that's been happening, I don't want to anymore. I want it out of my life. It's no longer important and I wonder how I could have found such trival things important in the first place." His voice held emotion and she knew he was serious about this.

She met his eyes, and her own eyes held a mixture of emotions, hope and fear, love. "Riley, if anything happens I want you to know, I've always wanted you to know, I do love you too. I just wish that we'd gotten a chance to be together before all this took place." He was speechless, the woman he loved had just told him that she loved him but had no chance to be with him, he felt as if he had failed at the only thing that truly mattered, his life.

"There's something I have to show you," he said, pointing to the computer. She took a seat at the computer chair and he stood behind her. He'd found a website a few days ago that showed connections to the people from flight 180. "The other day I was searching for answers online and I found this site, it shows links to how we're all connected," he pointed to the computer screen. The background was black, with images of all the surviors from 180, along with a few major events they had each been through before they died.

"We already know how we're connected, all we really need to know is how to win, and we can't win against something like death. Everyone dies, eventually, it might be in our sleep or it might be as horrible as the things we've been through in the past few days." He leaned over her and kissed her softly on the forehead, wishing things could be different. "You know, it's scary, knowing you could close your eyes and everything that matters could be taken away forever. I feel like I've failed, you're the only thing that's ever mattered to me and I can't even have you," he told her, tears filling his eyes.

They both knew they were meant to be together, but death never intended them to be. "If only it were a different lifetime, I know I'm not meant for Jeremy and I wish things had been different. I've loved you since the day I met you, I knew something was different about you, but I was scared. How do you react to a thing like love? How do you react to something you can never be sure of because it can fall from your reach so quickly? Riley, I wish things had been different, I wish we'd have had a chance because I know in my heart it's you I belong with, I'm just so scared and I have no reason to be. Does it really matter if I die if I've been living without love all this time?"

He held her soaked shoulder. Suddenly his lips brushed hers, they held each other passionately before she pushed him away. "I can't...if it were different..." and she ran from the room, in tears. She couldn't find the words to explain but she didn't need to. He understood, it was too late and she was with someone else. She loved him and belonged with him, but she was with someone else and Riley wondered if anything in his life mattered anymore. He didn't get the girl, he loved the girl but without her his life was not complete. He realized that was the true reason he was meant to die.

He walked across the room, not noticing a bump forming in the carpet. When Janie was ready to talk they would talk. She peaked into the room, "I'm really sorry," she told him. "I love you...it's just that things aren't right now." He moved forward without looking, "I understand," he said. His foot caught on the carpet, he tripped, falling into a shelf. His Freddy glove was on that shelf. It cut him in the thoart, he coughed up blood and his life was fading before his very eyes. It was turning to black as he dripped dark blood all over the blue carpet, holding his neck. Janie rushed to him, she tried to help him, she couldn't. She kissed his lips and with a kiss he died. "I love you," Janie said to his dead body. His head in her lap, she burst into tears. Her entire world had just fallen to pieces.


	18. Chapter 18

Janie's face was soaked with tears to begin with when she peaked in at Riley. She wanted to explain, she wanted to tell him so much, she wanted to be with him and was going to. She never thought it would end the way it did. She said a few things to him and then he turned and tripped over a bump in the carpet. It wouldn't have been so horrible if it hadn't been for the fact that he collected Freddy items and on that shelf there happened to be a Freddy glove. She watched in horror as the finger knives cut into his neck, dark blood soaked everything.

She ran to his side, collapsing beside him, it reminded her of the part in Romeo and Juliet when they die. She cried and screamed and she was sure somewhere in that time frame she kissed him. She looked up, not wanting to look at Riley. The bloody Freddy glove waved at her and she looked away. She prayed that she could help Riley. She grabbed her cell phone and called Jeremy. She didn't remember what she told him, it seemed like forever before he got there.

Jeremy didn't knock, he just walked in, looking a bit scared and unsure of what to do. He'd never been in that situation before, it didn't register that it was real until he saw his girlfriend, soaked in Riley's blood, tears flowing from her eyes. At that moment he realized that Janie loved Riley and his relationship with Janie was hopeless. She wasn't open to feelings from Jeremy, and he wasn't sure of why she wasn't with Riley to began with. As he saw Riley's chest move, he realized he had no time to think about himself.

Jeremy prayed that there was something he could do to save Riley, save the man his girlfriend truly loved. Ryan and Jeremy picked up Riley's body and loaded it into Jeremy's car. Janie followed, never leaving his side. Jeremy hoped that he'd live long enough to find a love like theirs, and to tell the truth he was a bit jealous. He was jealous of a man whose life was fading away from him as blood flowed from his neck.

Jeremy was behind the wheel as the drove in silence, other then Janie's sobs. Ryan and Jeremy thinking, selfishly, of their own fates. It seemed like a long time before they reached the hospital. "I don't think we should move him again, I think we should get a nurse or a doctor. We could hurt him by moving him," Ryan said, thinking about when they moved him from his living room floor. "I'm not leaving his side, even if I am next, or you're next, it doesn't matter. The only thing that ever mattered is the thing that's happening now, the emotions I've ignored for too long..."

Ryan and Jeremy headed into the hospital, yelling for help. Soon a small team ran outside, coming back with Janie and Riley. It all seemed a blur to Ryan and Riley. They sat in the waiting room and waited for any news. Ryan's head started to ache and he thought that Janie had died already and he was next. He was proven wrong when he started to have another vision...


	19. Chapter 19

Janie sat, watching Riley for signs of life. The doctors had told her there was a chance that he might  
live. She sat, tears rolling down her own face, caring only about Riley. She had realized sometime  
in her life, before his near death, that they belonged together. She always knew they belonged  
together, it just took her awhile to come to terms with it. Before she met Riley she didn't believe in  
love, she only believed in either being alone or dating someone for a short period of time. She lived  
her life in a way that she shouldn't have. Either being alone or not allowing herself feelings for those  
she dated.

It was a pitiful way for anyone to live, she assumed she had trust issues, she never had any reason  
to trust or distrust anyone. Maybe she was antisocial. In a way Riley changed her life, she trusted  
him, she loved him. She knew from the minute she met him that something was different about him.  
She also knew that she loved him from the minute they met. It was something she'd never felt for  
anyone. Sometimes she cried when she thought of him, thought of not being with him or not telling  
him how she felt.

It was the one relationship that scared and amazed her at the same time. The only person she'd  
ever thought would hurt her if he broke up with her. Maybe that's why she didn't go after him, fear  
of hurting. Seeing him, tubes in his mouth and arms, pale in his hospital bed, she realized she may  
have waited too long. "Riley, I don't know if you can hear me, and I won't forgive myself if I don't  
tell you this. I know I'm not making any sense, please don't die on me," she paused to grab his  
hand and kiss it. She brushed back his hair, then kissed him on his forehead. A tear landed on his  
face.

Janie's face glistened with tears, her face was red from crying. "Riley, I won't forgive myself if you  
die and I never got the chance to tell you that I love you, never get the chance to be with you. It  
scared me before. I love you, I've known that since the first time I saw you, before we even said  
two words to each other. I realize now that I was wrong and I needed to be with you. I was  
wrong about a lot of things...You knew this. I want you to know I love you."

Janie didn't care for her own safety, she thought death should take her, if it would take Riley. What  
is life without love? What is life without the people you care about? What is life without the people  
you would give your life for? It's nothing, that's all it is. An empty existance. Janie realized she'd be  
nothing without Riley.

The machine behind Janie buzzed, more loudly then it had been. She feared for Riley, praying for  
him. "Riley, please don't die, don't leave me," she sobbed. He opened his eyes and looked at her  
for a long moment, she almost thought he might be dead. He'd heard everything she said, he wasn't  
sure how but he knew everything. He loved her and would give his life for her. He was going  
nowhere. They belonged together. He had trouble speaking, due to his cuts, when he spoke he  
said, "don't worry beautiful, I'm not going anywhere without you." He smiled at her.

They both heard disturbing sounds down the hall and wondered how death would react to Riley's statement...


	20. Chapter 20

Ryan sat in the waiting room of the hospital, beside Jeremy. His breathing seemed heavier then normal. His eyes opened wide. He'd been through so much, and what he saw next wouldn't help things. First he was back at the restaurant. He saw Jeremy standing over a dead Janie, trying to save her. He was never meant to die the first time.

His vision blurred a little and he was back in the hospital waiting room with Jeremy at his side. People around him started to panic and he saw that one half of the hospital had caught on fire. A screaming nurse rushed out, her hair on fire as she ran. There would be no saving her. People ran around, it was clear who death's targets were. The fire made the sound of cracking wood.

Ryan realized there would be no survivors on that side of the building. He was saddened by this, but realized he wouldn't be able to stop something he didn't know the cause of himself. Ryan wondered if Janie and Riley were ok. He prayed that they were. He looked over at Jeremy and the two were on their feet, running for the door. They didn't know which room Janie and Riley were in.

They only thought of themselves as they ran out of the hospital, into the parking lot. They were still running when a piece of glass flew from the door and sliced Jeremy in half. He stood for a minute before falling into two separate pieces on the asphalt. He had enough time to look down at the blood spreading on his shirt as the pain set in. It was the worst pain he'd ever been through. The last thing he saw before his vision faded away was Ryan, attempting to help him.

Ryan ran towards the bloody mess that was Jeremy. He looked at the body, cut in two, blood filling the ground. He started to reach out for Jeremy, then stopped, seeing his eyes weakening. He couldn't put him back together and bring him back. He realized he must have been the last thing Jeremy saw before his eyes closed for a final time.

When Ryan realized that nothing he would do would help him, he turned and ran himself. He knew death would be after him, he also knew he wasn't truly living anymore. His life had become waiting to die. He realized there was no way he'd ever cheat death and wondered why he was even running from it. Maybe he should just come to terms with something he couldn't stop. There was so much he had left that he wanted to do in life that he hadn't.

He slowed his pace and began to sob. It was not a brave move on his part. It was just Ryan, coming to terms with the way things were. Another piece of glass flew towards him and this time he didn't try to stop it. His prayers were with Riley and Janie as the glass cut into him. He was sliced in two, horizontally. The front and back of his body falling in different directions as his blood and organs joined Jeremy's on the ground.

Ryan opened his eyes and realized he was in the hospital waiting room with Jeremy. Jeremy was shaking him; he must have noticed Ryan acting odd. "Jeremy, we have to find Riley and Janie and get out of here. I had another premonition." He realized that since he didn't see them in this one Janie and Riley might be safe, he wanted to be sure. Jeremy's eyes looked haunted and Ryan didn't bother to tell him that he wasn't supposed to die the first time. He thought it would just annoy Jeremy.

They ran through the hospital, peaking in each room, hoping one contained Riley and Janie. They started with the size that caught on fire. They had no luck as they heard an explosion behind them. It didn't sound too far off and it worried Ryan. They finally had a bit of luck when they noticed Janie sticking her head out of a room to see what was going on. She saw them running towards her, a worried look crossed her face. "What's wrong?" she asked them and Ryan realized how scared the pair must have looked. "I had another vision." She opened the door and allowed them to enter. Riley lay on a hospital bed. He wasn't in the best shape but they wouldn't leave without him.

Jeremy pushed the hospital bed from behind, while Ryan and Janie took the things attached to Riley. Riley mumbled something and no one could understand what he said but it sounded like he said he was safe. They gathered things to help him survive and then ran from the room, hurrying towards the front door. They were at the door and Ryan thought of his vision, he hadn't even told Jeremy the details. He thought of the glass spilling organs onto the asphalt. He shuttered and watched the three of them go through the door before going himself.

The self-opening and closing doors slammed shut on his body. The doors made a sickening sound as they cut his body. His body spilt in two like he'd seen in his vision. He'd felt his pain twice and known what it was like to die twice. He briefly thought about why Jeremy didn't die. It was because he had put another before himself, he'd helped Riley survivor so he was getting a chance to live. The remaining survivors stood and watched as Ryan's body spilt in two and fell in two different directions.

His blood and organs spilt on the ground as the others looked away. Tears filled some of their eyes as they looked away from what used to be Ryan but was not a mess of blood and death. "We've survived this time, but it's only a matter of time before we met the same fate and I don't plan to live hiding from death for the rest of my life," Riley said, he held Janie's hands. They had changed their lives and their fates for the time being.


End file.
